Constantinos Volanakis Greek, 1837-1907

Probably Baron de Wittenbach (by 1900)
Cotesworth Collection, England
Sale: Christie's, London, 27 November 1981, lot 90
purchased at the above sale by the present owner

After his initial training at the School of Fine Arts in Athens, Volanakis left Greece to complete his studies in Munich. There he was exposed to the works of the Dutch 17th Century masters as well as the revolutionary works of Gustave Courbet - on view at the International Exhibition of 1869.

In Collecting the Nets, Volanakis has succeeded in fashioning a highly personal artistic idiom rooted in plein air painting and French Impressionism. Leaving behind the realistic fidelity to detail of Dutch 17th century marine painting that he had previously aspired to, his style evolved towards a free and bold expression of the more advanced art currents of his time, in which the rendering of light and its reflections, and the accentuation of atmospheric elements gained primacy.