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Dimitrios Galanis Painting for Bonhams Greek Art Sale

`The Painter’s Family’, (1920-21) a masterpiece by Dimitrios Galanis, will be sold at Bonhams next sale of Greek Art in New Bond Street on 10th November for an estimated £200,000 to £300,000.

dimitrios-galanis.jpgAlthough it has not been seen for in public for 80 years its provenance includes time in the Collection Girardin, France and the George Stringos collection in Athens. It was first exhibited in Paris in 1921 and again in1922, and in Athens in 1928.

“The best picture Galanis ever gave us is his Family” said D. Evangelidhes and Ambassador D. Athanassopoulos wondered in 1982, “Where might this Galanis masterpiece be today?” He asked this question in his book D. Galanis 1879-1966, referring to this monumental work that was exhibited in Paris along with paintings by Picasso and Bonnard and was included in the major 1928 Galanis retrospective at the Iliou Melathron (Schliemann Mansion) in Athens. This definitive Galanis, which was highly praised by critics and collectors alike, was a rare jewel in one of the most prominent interwar collections of Modern Greek art that survived the 1941 and 1944 Piraeus bombings and the dark days of German occupation. It was then lost for decades before being rediscovered at the Stringos mansion in Kifissia, its appearance at Bonhams marking the first time it is seen publicly in 80 years.

The flagship of Galanis’s entire oeuvre and one of the most important works in the history of Greek art that redefines monumental portraiture, The painter’s family reaped praise and wonder from art critics as early as the mid 1920s. Professor D. Evangelidhes deemed it “the best picture Galanis ever gave us. Its power of rich plasticity, solid and encompassing composition and deep-felt spiritual expression are combined in admirable unity and timeless harmony.” M. Kalligas, former Director of the Athens National Gallery made the following incisive remark: “The painter’s family will remain a work of lasting value because it brought us a new atmosphere, a novel expression. Without being ostentatious, these figures were revolutionary for that time.”

This magnificent group portrait pictures the painter’s family in Galanis’s famous studio in Montmartre at 12 rue Cortot, which had been the legendary abode of such illustrious artists and intellectuals as Utrillo, Raul Dufy and Susan Valadon. His studio-home in which Galanis lived continuously from 1910 to 1964 -with only a brief break during World War I- was frequented by avant-garde painters and members of the French intelligencia, including Picasso, Braque, Rouault, Utrillo, Derain and Matisse, who often played the violin.7 The inclusion of an open music notebook on the table behind his son underscores Galanis’s passion for music.

The painter’s family was eventually acquired by Georgios Stringos (1878-1956), a leading personality in the history of Modern Greek commerce who opened new vistas in terms of trade, industry and related chambers. He was also one of the first and most prominent collectors of Modern Greek art, demonstrating considerable insight and keen aesthetic criteria.

The Stringos mansion, was until recently the French Institute of Piraeus, was purchased in 1917. One of the reasons Stringos dearly loved this house was because his collections could be better displayed. During the German occupation the building was commandeered and used as an officer’s club. The owners were allowed, however, to leave one of their people inside, a trusted caretaker, thanks to whose ingenuity and resourcefulness part of the collection was salvaged. Following the German retreat, the house was first commandeered by the British forces and then by the Greek Navy and used as an officer’s club. Up until 1955, when the Greek Navy ceased using it, the Stringos mansion hosted memorable festivities and magnificent receptions.

Among the artists in this sale are great names like Fassianos , Kessanlis, Prassinos, Tsinogos and Gaitis.

Another great image in the Bonhams sale of Greek Art is ‘The sailing boat SEVASTON approaching the Corinth canal’ by Volanakis which is also estimated to make £200,000 to £300,000.

An elegant and seductive beauty and at the same time an imposing presence in complete command of the waters surrounding it, this captivating portrait of a two-masted vessel briskly sailing in a fresh breeze off the mouth of the Corinth Canal, exudes an air of confidence, power and mastery of the forces of nature.

She is presented in a broadside view, enabling the artist to include the maximum amount of visual information about her -the nature of rigging, the number of passengers and crew, the type and size of sails. A low horizon line allows the sailing boat to define the space around her, while the calm waters upon which she sails pose little apparent threat to her well-being.

The ship portrayed gently gliding in the fresh breeze is a graceful brigantine, and specifically a brigantine, a light two-masted sailing vessel that is square-rigged on the foremast and fore-and-aft rigged on the mainmast, as opposed to a brig, which is square rigged on both masts.

Knowledgeable about ships and well equipped to describe them in detail, Volanakis captured the smooth-flowing vessel in all its splendour, producing an accurate and convincing picture which belongs to the great nineteenth century European tradition of ship portraiture. The value of the ship portrait, which had its heyday in England and coincided with the boom in the shipping industry, lay for its owner-audience in its likeness to the original, its success largely depending on the visual accuracy of the observer-artist. The size, proximity, detailing of rigging and masts, broadside presentation and, above all, the banner on the foremast reading Sevaston -the name of the ship or the shipping company- confirm that this is indeed a ship portrait rather than a generalised marine view.

Ever since his studies at the Munich Academy, Volanakis perceived the seascape as a complex entity, a homogenous whole with unlimited expressive potential, allowing him to seek the ideal balance between nature’s elemental forces and man’s will to master. Upon his return from Germany in 1883, he took up permanent residency in the seaside town of Piraeus and had the opportunity to observe and render the atmospheric changes, the delicate nuances of the seascape and the soft gradations of light and shade with great accuracy and finesse. His descriptive details, suggestive atmospheric effects and low horizons that give full value to the spaciousness of his skies, are reminiscent of the great 17th century Dutch masters. Volanakis, however, adds a Mediterranean feel that differentiates him from the western manner, endowing his work with a highly personal and unique style.

‘Eroticon’ by Moralis is a great work by the greatest Greek artist alive and demonstrates the defining elements of his signature style: solid structure, purity of form, poetic abstraction, disciplined rhythm, harmonious proportions, inspired synthesis of gently flowing curves and ingenious interplay of active and passive themes.

As Nobel laureate O. Elytis once said of Moralis, “a longing for the monumental has always driven the painter’s hand to organise and balance his forms on an intellectual edifice, bestowing on even his most sensual conceptions a feeling of mystery and a Biblical sense of the sacred.” Painted on the island of Aegina in the summer of 1977, Eroticon demonstrates a striking balance between erotic passion, lyrical feeling and intellectual thought.

Auction info http://www.bonhams.com/greeksale