Lithuanian art historian and critic, graphic artist, pioneer of Lithuanian professional museology, honored figure of art.
P. Galaunė attended the Vepriiai Folk School, where Russian was the language of instruction. He graduated from the school in 1902, completing the three-year course in two years. In 1904 he went to St. Petersburg, enrolled in the fourth grade of the Real Gymnasium. From 1910 to 1913 he studied at the Faculty of Humanities of the St. Petersburg Psychoneurological Institute. In 1910-1912, he attended the drawing school of the Society for the Promotion of Art, studied at private art studios, participated in the first Lithuanian art exhibitions, and worked for the magazine "Aušrinė". After the First World War in St. Petersburg, he took care of the registration of Lithuanian cultural monuments and their return to Lithuania. After returning from Russia in 1918-1919, he taught at the Vilnius Gymnasium.
In 1918, he met Adele Nezabitauskaite, a descendant of the famous Nezabitauskas-Zabičis family. On 12 January 1919, after several months of friendship, they were married by the priest Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas. In 1962, after the death of his wife in 1967, he married for the second time, his wife Kazimiera Galaunienė.
191919-1923 he worked at the State Museum in Kaunas. He taught at the Higher Drawing Courses. In 1920 he was one of the founders and a member of the Lithuanian Society of Art Creators.
1923-1924 he lived in Paris, studied at the Louvre School. Upon his return to Lithuania, he was responsible for collecting the surviving art collections, returning the exported art and cultural treasures to Lithuania, setting up the Čiurlionis Gallery and building its palace; 1924-1936 - head of the gallery, 1936-1944 - director of the Vytautas the Great Museum of Culture, 1944-1949 - director of the Čiurlionis Art Museum. During the Second World War he took care of the preservation of the valuables of the Čiurlionis Museum.
1919-1925 and 1930-1935 Member of the State Archaeological Commission. He provided all kinds of support to Lithuanian museums of local studies and was a member of their scientific councils. In 1930 he was one of the founders of the Society of Book Lovers.
He organised exhibitions of folk art works in Italy (1925), France (1927), Sweden, Norway, Denmark (1931), organised (with others) expositions of Lithuanian professional art at the world exhibitions in Paris (1937), New York (1939). He was the first to initiate exhibitions of ecclesiastical art and bookplates in Lithuania and abroad (Belgium, 1928). He was concerned with the protection of historical, archaeological and architectural monuments. He collected, researched and systematised works of folk and professional art.
P. Galaunė formed the professional foundations of national art history and criticism. He created graphic works with fantastic content, Art Nouveau features, book covers and illustrations, vignettes, bookplates, ex-librises, postage stamps, magazine and book covers. In 1910-1987, he published 430 journalistic and scientific articles and studies on various issues of Lithuanian art and culture.
He published catalogues of works by M. K. Čiurlionis, Mečislovas Bulaka, Aleksei Kravchenko, and Adomas Galdikas.
