Constantinos Volanakis

Acquired directly from the artist by the family of the present owner circa 1890; thence by descent

The stillness and calm so often captured in Volanakis' marine paintings is highlighted in the present work by the cover of night. Although Volanakis includes descriptive details such as the inviting glow of a taverna, the journey of a horse-drawn tram and people rambling along the port-side promenade, a sense of immobility and calm pervades. The long shadows cast by a mysteriously obscured moon add an eerie timelessness to the scene, and the velvety quality of the darkness places emphasis on Volanakis' deft yet fine brushstrokes. Moonlit seascapes featured far more frequently in the artist's canon after his return to Greece and specifically Piraeus in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.