Georgios Roilos Greek, 1867-1928

The subject of the present work is the Greek's army's exit from the Kresna Gorge in July 1913. The battle, which is considered one of the most significant of the Greek-Bulgarian War, took place just days before the signing of the Bucharest Peace Treaty.

Roilos's initial training was at the School of Fine Arts in Athens from 1880 to 1887. He was then awarded a scholarship from the Kritsi Bequest to study in Munich under Nicholas Gysis and later continued his training in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He returned to Greece in 1894 as a teacher at the school of Fine Arts.

"...During the exit from Kresna Gorge, the Greek army met with renewed resistance by Bulgarians and the Greeks' position became critical. The general advance of the Greek 6th Division began, which expanded along the front. The men were not only hungry, but many had suffered from the atmospheric conditions on the mountain tops.

At noon, the men shivered from the cold and in the afternoon, they froze, but despite this, they continued to advance trying with bayonets to drive the Bulgarians out of their last line of defence as it seemed..." (Capt. Albert Trapman, Londons Daily Telegraph War correspondent, 12 July 1913).