Georgios Jakobides

Known for his heartfelt and wry depictions of the relations between children and adults, in the present work, a grandmother lovingly supports a giggling toddler in his first steps on the family table-top, encouraged by his sister. The painting is one of three known versions of this subject painted by Jakobides. The largest version was exhibited in Munich in 1892, to great acclaim, and is now in the collection of the National Gallery and Alexandros Soutzos Museum, Athens, of the two smaller versions this is the only one dated.  

An atmosphere of warmth and enthusiasm pervades the familiar image, assisted by the light slanting through the window and bathing the scene with a gentle glow. Jakobides' training in Munich is evident in the clarity of the light that illuminates the edges and outlines, in contrast to the fluid and solvent quality seen in French Impressionism at the time. Each pictorial element of the interior scene is carefully chosen and meticulously painted in order to build a scene imbued with a familial richness and expressing the idyllic tranquillity of domestic family life. The discarded ball of yarn and knitting needles, the faint outlines of distant houses seen through the open windows and the cheerful flowerpot on the windowsill speak of domestic and familial bliss.