Constantinos Parthenis

Estate of the artist
Nicholas Parthenis, the artist's son 
Gallery Timos, Athens (purchased from the above)
Private Collection, Athens

In the present work Parthenis carefully and expressively uses both sides of the canvas, a technique that he would employ repeatedly in his career (see Sotheby's, London, The Greek Sale, 17 April 2008, lot 33).

On the recto is a luminously sunlit and vibrant image of Corfu, where Parthenis temporarily settled between 1912-17. During this sojourn in Corfu, the Alexandrine Parthenis took Greek citizenship and became a member of the artistic and literary group Company of Nine. Early in his oeuvre, Parthenis used Post-Impression as a model, notably the work of the Fauves and Nabis. In this brilliant-hued depiction of the Ionian island, Parthenis creates a happy union of sheer light with a vivid palette.

On the verso is a dream-like image of violet trees, silhouetted in front of a warm sunset. Parthenis, in his early career, was a leading exponent of the new landscape painting that dominated the seminal Omas Techni show of 1917, and which became the nation's first truly modernist movement. In his paintings, Parthenis drew heavily on Symbolism and Expressionism in envisioning his surroundings as a meditative object.

The early years of the last century, Greek art was dominated by Symbolism.  Allegorical and mythological subjects were popular not only with students of Gysis, but also with more modern and progressive painters such as Maleas and Parthenis. The literary and philosophical origins of Symbolism together with its idealistic elements and focus on dream, fantasy and poetry corresponded to a model of modernism that Greek painters identified with and considered 'worthy' of the Greek classical tradition. Parthenis' works of this period typically combine philosophical or poetic content with visual beauty and decorative embellishment.