Georgios Jakobides

Wimmer & Co. Gallery of Fine Arts, Munich
Sale: Sotheby's, London, 17 March 1993, lot 116
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Athens, VI Exhibition Parnassos, 1903, no. 56, illustrated in the catalogue
Athens, National Gallery & Alexander Soutzos Museum, Georgios Jakobides Retrospective, 2005-6, illustrated in the catalogue (as The Little Struggler)

Daheim - Kalender für das Deutsche Reich, Bielefeld & Leipzig, 1889, p. 191, illustrated
'Georgios Jakobides', in Panathinea, vol. IV, 30 June 1902, p. 170
Olga Metzafou-Polyzou, Jakobides, Athens, 1999, p. 337, no. 48, catalogued; p. 67, illustrated (as The Little Struggler)
Marina Lambraki-Plaka, Georgios Jakobides Calendar 2006, National Gallery & Alexander Soutzos Museum, Athens, 2005, illustrated (as The Little Struggler)

The canvas has not been lined. Ultraviolet light reveals a couple of tiny spots of retouching, one below the boy's left hand in his coat, and another to the right of his smoke ring, however these are very minor. There is a faint horizontal stretcher mark in the centre, and a few fine light surface scratches in the lower right corner, through the basket and wall (just visible in the catalogue illustration). Overall this work is in very good condition, and is ready to hang. Held in an elaborate gilt frame, with foliate, floral and fruit ornaments. The colours are somewhat richer and more vibrant in reality than in the catalogue illustration, notably in the bricks of the wall, and in the boy's baskets.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Painted in 1887, the present work depicts a young street urchin taking a break from his chores and playing with smoke rings. The work is an outstanding example of Jakobides celebrated skill at portraying children, capturing their young characters with both sensitivity and humour. By presenting the boy against a neutral back drop, all the emphasis is on his cheeky charm, the focus similar to another major composition from this period, Grandpa's New Pipe (fig. 1).

A great admirer of the painters of the Baroque, in the precise rendering of materials and the intense chiaroscuro in Smoke Rings Jakobides draws on the work of Carravaggio and Murillo, as well as the nineteenth-century Realism of Courbet. In the vibrant whites, resonant blacks and earth-tones, punctuated by the red of the boy's cravat, the influence of the Munich School of Painters appears, in particular Nikiforos Lytras, Jakobides' friend and fellow student there.

In November 1870 Jakobides moved to Athens and enrolled in the Athens School of Fine Arts where he studied until 1876. In 1877 he was awarded a scholarship and travelled to the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Munich, to study under the realist painter Karl von Piloty. Jakobides found great success with his ethnographic paintings of children in a German academic realist style, and was invited by the Greek government to be the first curator of the National Gallery in Athens in 1900. In 1904 he was appointed director of his alma mater, the Athens School of Fine Arts.