Painter and printmaker Jacques Hallez was born in Deneuvre, France on April 2, 1923. Coming from a family of artists and artisans, he was the grandson of French painter Joseph-Emile Gridel and the great-nephew of Jean-Baptiste Toussaint, director of Baccaret Crystal manufacturing. He studied under Henri Marchal and Andre Vahl at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Nancy between 1939-1944. He fought for France in World War in the campaign in Alsace and Germany. 

In September of 1945, just as the war had been declared over, he married sculptor Colette Barbazanges and they settled in Baccarat. Halez worked as a decorative artist for textile and cermaics manufacturers while also working on his own paintings and engravings. He frequented the Parisian studio of Andre Lhote between 1948 and 1951 and held his first solo exhibition at the Galerie Sagot-Le Garrec in 1951. That same year he was appointed professor of engraving at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts Marsaille.

Hallez steadily built a name for himself as an artist, especially in engraving, completing over 800 copperplates and sixty woodengravings. This was in addition to his paintings, mosaics, tapestries and more. He was awarded the Henri galileo Prize from the Stanislas Academy in 1957, and he became a member of the French Society of Painter-Engravers in 1964 and, when he and Colette settled in Hallez's native Deneuvre in 1973, he was appointed professor of engraving once more, now at his alma mater. 

Jacques Hallez remained active as an artist until very near his death in Deneuvre on Janury 28, 2021. 

Works by Hallez can be found in the collections of the Bibliotheque National Paris, the Musee Cantini, Paris, and in museum throughout France and in London, England and Cincinnati, USA.