Press Release London For Immediate Release

London | +44 (0)20 7293 6000 | Kelly Signorelli-Chaplin | kelly.schaplin@sothebys.com

kell y.schaplin@sothebys.com
Matthew Floris | matthew.floris@sothebys.com

Major work by Volanakis to Highlight

Sotheby’s Greek
Greek Sale in London on 9 May
May 2011
---Sale to also include Masters of Greek Modernism---

Elegant Figures At The Shore by Constantinos Volanakis,

Volanakis estimated £300,000-500,000

Constantinos Volanakis
Volanakis (1837-1907), Elegant Figures At The Shore, estimate £300,000-500,000

SOTHEBY’S GREEK SALE, on Monday, 9 May, 2011,

2011 will draw together an exceptional array of Greek art,
with important examples of 19th and 20th-century masters such as Constantinos Volanakis,
Volanakis Konstantinos
Maleas,
Maleas and Nicos Hadjikiriakos-
Hadjikiriakos- Ghika.
Ghika The sale of 132 lots is estimated to fetch in excess of £4 million.

Speaking about the sale, Constantine Frangos, Senior Director, Greek and 19th Century European
Paintings, Sotheby’s, London
Londo n, commented, “We are very pleased to be offering once again a selection of high
quality Greek paintings to an international audience. We expect the Volanakis to attract much attention and we
look forward to welcoming collectors from Greece, Europe as well as the rest of the world.”
The sale will be highlighted by Elegant Figures At The Shore by Constantinos Volanakis (1837-1907),
estimated at £300,000-500,000. In this monumental panorama, Volanakis deploys all of his painterly
talents to present the viewer with a wealth of detail, from the rich tones of the lower left to the delicately-
observed playing children. This work is a prime example of Volanakis’ sensitive depiction of atmospheric
conditions and natural elements within the cadre of the traditional marine painting. The painting is infused with
delicate detail, complementing while not overwhelming the calm, growing ambiance for which Volanakis’ work
is renowned, revealing impressionist, plein air tendencies stylistically advanced for Greece at this time.
Volanakis is an artist of great importance in both the 19th century and marine genre, most notably for his
position as a key member of the Greek ‘Munich School’ movement of academic realism, almost belying the
warmth and immediacy of his seascapes. The sale will also include four more masterpieces by Volanakis.

Further highlights include masterpieces by Konstantinos Maleas (1879-1928). His Olive Trees, Mytilini
(pictured below), carries an estimate of £80,000-120,000. At the beginning of the 20th century, painters
such as Maleas, Parthenis and
Papaloukas endeavored to create a genuine and
modern form of plein air painting. Using as his
models French Post-Impressionism, Fauvism and
Nabis Symbolism, Maleas tried to capture the
ideosyncracies of the Greek light and the varying
landscapes of his homeland. Often
executed outdoors with spatulas on small
pasteboard or wooden panels, Maleas' poetic landscapes feature a supremely gestural approach. Maleas
travelled to Mytilini in the 1920s and it is likely the present work was painted during one of these trips.

Maleas’ The Shore, Attica (pictured right), estimated at £70,000-100,000, belongs to a series of paintings
by the artist entitled Attica's Shores.
Influenced by the Post-Impressionist
movements of the early 20th century,
Maleas' work is dominated by vibrant
colours and thick brushstrokes. His
technique of applying paint in
layers was influenced by his teacher
Henri Martin under whom he

2
studied in Paris from 1901 to 1908. Maleas' pivotal importance in Greek painting is ascribed to the
assimilation of Pont Aven symbolism; the arabesque line and flattened space of art nouveau, and the rich
colouring of the Fauves. Often executed en plein air with spatulas, Maleas' poetic landscapes represent a
supremely gestural approach that displaces the painted with the painting as the artist's priority.

Estimated at £100,000-150,000, Nicos Hadjikyriakos-

Hadjikyriakos-Ghika's
impressive Flowers,
Flowers dated 1937, typifies the Greek early twentieth
century preoccupation with creating pictorial languages at once
international and quintessentially Greek. Beginning and ending his
life in Greece, Nikos Hadjikiriakos-Ghika began his artistic
scholarship under Konstantinos Parthenis in Athens, relocating to
Paris to enrol at the Sorbonne, the Ranson Academy and the studio
of Dimitris Galanis. This erudite, well-travelled and sophisticated
background would nourish a hungry mind, open to the concept of an
analytic and mathematical form of modernism. The sale will include
seven more exceptional works by Hadjikyriakos-Ghika.

The House That He Dreams Of (Hydra) by Michalis Economou (1888-1933), is a rich work which
demonstrates Economou's talents as a colourist and observer of light, with the intense and variegated orange
and yellow hues sensitively combined with pinks and blues,
the whole reflected in the calm waters (estimate
£100,000-150,000). The whole shimmers, mirage-like,
at the foot of the soft, earthy hill. Economou initially went to
Paris in 1906 to study architecture, but soon changed his
mind and enrolled at the Académie des Beaux-Arts instead.
The twenty years during which he lived and worked in
France had a profound influence on his oeuvre. In particular
the work of Manet and Matisse and their modern theories
on composition and colour were adapted by the artist to suit his individual artistic vision.

3
Other highlights will also include important works by Nicolas Gysis, Yiannis Gaitis, Paris Prekas, Thanos
Tsingos, Theofilos, Yiannis Spyropoulos, Alekos Kontopoulos, Nikos Eggonopoulos, Diamantis
Diamantopoulos and Alekos Fassianos .

# # #