Pericles Pantazis

Pantazis and Altamouras were the first Greek painters fully to explore the new possibilities suggested by French Realism and Impressionism. Significantly, each artist began his training in Nikiforos Lytras' Athens studio during the early 1870s, before venturing abroad.

The choice of Munich's Akademie der Bildenden Künste, where Pantazis enrolled in 1871, was a natural one. The Bavarian capital had embraced Greek emigré artists starting with Theodoros Vryzakis. Yet the structures of academic teaching rapidly frustrated Pantazis, for within a year he had relocated to Marseilles, and then Paris. Arriving in Paris in 1872, Pantazis came into contact with the work of Gustave Courbet and was immediately seduced by his approach to painting. 'Paris was a veritable revelation to [him]. Courbet's Realism offered the young artist new means of self-expression: no longer would his perception of nature concern merely the purely visible aspect, but its inherent truth also. The object would be invested with a spiritual content, not through embellishment or exaltation, but because, however rude, it could be shown as it really existed' (de Heusch, Metzafou-Polyzou & Samaras, ibid., p. 23).

Pantazis' early works reflect the influence of Courbet, both in subject matter and in the thick application of colour. Suffering from tuberculosis he followed the advice of Manet and settled in Brussels in 1873 where thanks to letters of recommendation from Manet he rapidly came into contact with the Belgian avant-garde. He travelled throughout Belgium looking for motifs and painted secluded natural spots as well as bustling seaside resorts, stylistically oscillating between Realism, Pleinairisme and Impressionism.

In 1878 Pantazis participated as part of the Greek delegation in the Exposition Universelle in Paris. The thirteen works he sent were the largest contribution to the exhibition entered by a Greek artist. His entries attracted the attention and praise of the leading French critics of the day, such as Joris Karl Huysmans, Camille Lemmonier and Paul Lefort, assuring that his name became known outside Belgium.