Nicholas Gysis

Private Collection, Athens

As noted by Dr Nelly Missirli `Gysis must have created the head of this country girl at the apex of the maturity of his technical and expressive strength. Moreover, free from any tendency to beautification, he incarnated the realistic actuality with such mastery that he proves to be able to be compared with the great German realist painter Wilhelm Leibl. The face, with its red cheeks and relatively rough features, renders the vigour and strength of a young girl of the country. Her eyes, which she turns to the right, have a spirit and at the same time a relative rusticity, which combined with the half-open mouth give a rough and absolutely natural face. The elaboration is done here with little alternating brushstrokes, the ultimate painting Truth as the 'Leibl's circle' perceived it, is realized here, proving that Gysis, when creating smaller range works, could express himself spontaneously and pass over the rules of the Academy. The highlight of this head is in its cover, which consists of two kerchiefs, one in earth tones and one in sea blue forming a kind of a hat. The most interesting part is the colour, which Gysis allows to emerge as the most important element of the work, through a dark earthy background. The colour sea blue is characteristic of the works by Gysis, who took the blue of the Aegean Sea with him to Munich and often dreamed of it. In one of his letters, he mentioned: "I am afraid that if I see my present paintings in the future they will seem to me as having the colour of the sea, because these days, when I am awake and when I sleep, I think of seas, boats etc." This particular work is very important for Gysis' potential and for his inclusion in other circles besides academic painting.'