Constantinos Volanakis

The delicate tones, soft glazes and the still, idyllic atmosphere in the present work make it a fine example of Volanakis' marine genre. While a fisherman works industriously repairing a net in the foreground, there is a pervasive sense of serenity and windless calm. The temperamental sea transforms into a limpid pool, gently reflecting the bottoms of the boats as the crystalline waters lap lightly at the sandy shore.

Although including the delicate detail Volanakis perfected during his schooling in Munich under academic painters such as Karl von Piloty, the present work reveals the influences of French Impressionism and contemporary French fashion for plein air painting, tendencies that were stylistically advanced for Greece at that time.

'[Volanakis] remains a rare painter, who transports us from shore to shore, with his little scenes, and his views of sea or gulf, in which the sweet, blue atmosphere of the Mediterranean finds concrete expression' (Chrysanthos Christou, The National Gallery: 19^th and 20^th Century Greek Painting, Athens, 1957, p. 20).