Theodoros Ralli

Sale: Christie's, London, 23 June 1989, lot 154
Sale: Christie's, London, 16 December 1997, lot 28
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

In the present work, Ralli repeats the theme of the sleeping young woman (lot 22), but in this instance the figure is a seller of icons and devotional paraphernalia on the street. Her eyelids are half shut as she languorously leans against a cool wall in the shade, off the heat and glaring sun of the main thoroughfare. As she slips into slumber, her wares slip unnoticed off their stands and nails, and the image is one celebrating the pleasant torpor of a warm Greek afternoon.