Demetrius Emmanuel Galanis

Sale: Jean-Marc Delvaux, Paris, 28 April 1995, lot 59
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Dimitris Galanis was a pioneering artist and among the first Greeks to be accepted by the European avant-garde as one of their own. A friend of Degas, Matisse, Derain, Braque and Picasso, Galanis embraced and creatively adapted their ideas and other modernist currents to develop his personal style. Galanis' work was characterized by a strong linear quality associated with his graphic techniques, as evident in the present work.

Galanis initially studied mathematics at the National Technical University in Athens, but finally enrolled at the Higher School of Fine Arts in Athens, where he studied under Nikiforos Lytras. In 1899, when he was still a student, he won the first prize in a competition for cartoons run by the Paris newspaper Le Journal. Upon graduation he went to Paris on a scholarship and studied for some time at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts under Fernand Cormon. He continued to draw cartoons for the Greek magazines Pinakothiki and Panathinea, and also contributed illustrations to the German periodicals Simplicissimus and Lustige Blätter. In 1914 Galanis joined the Foreign Legion, took French nationality and was transferred to an infantry regiment. In the course of his postings during World War I he was sent to Corfu in 1916. On his return to Paris in 1918 Galanis reoccupied his studio in the Rue Corot; this was frequented by Picasso, Matisse, Braque and Derain, and here Galanis installed a 17th-century press bequeathed to him by Degas. In 1919 Galanis exhibited at the Salon d'Automne to great acclaim, which led to numerous one man shows in Paris, Athens, New York and Egypt in the 1920s. Having taught for some years at the Académie André Lhote, he ran his own school of engraving after 1930. In 1945 he was appointed a professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and in the same year was elected to the Académie Française. In 1950 he was awarded the French Légion d'honneur.