Constantinos Parthenis Greek, 1878-1967

Newspaper, "Nea Estia", 15 May 1931, illustrated
"Parga", Alexandria, 1935, p. 48
Marinos Kalligas, Anglo-Greek Review, vol. B, 1946, pp. 111-113, illustrated
Antonis Kotidis, Modernism and Tradition, Thessaloniki, 1993, p. 238, no.169, illustrated
Eugenios Matthiopoulos, Greek inclusions in the Venice Bienniale 1934 to 1940, Doctoral thesis, Vol. C, University of Crete, Rethymnon, 1996, pp. 820-821, illustrated
 
 

Never previously offered at auction, the present painting is a major example of Parthenis' work from the 1930s. Influenced by Picasso, Braque and Modigliani, Parthenis has incorporated into the present work the avant-garde currents he encountered while in Italy and France.   

With its superb colouring and striking forcefulness of design, Face lost in the shadow of a branch is a prime example of Parthenis' power as a draughtsman. Painted in soft pinks, browns and blues, the face of the sitter dominates the centre of the composition. Her slightly tilted head is supported on a trunk-like neck outlined in black and juxtaposed with the saturated browns of the building behind her. Her large almond shaped eyes, empty of any expression, give her an enigmatic gaze reminiscent of the Kore statues of Greek antiquity. As in the portraits of Amadeo Modigliani (see fig. 1) and Pablo Picasso (see fig. 2) whose work Parthenis saw whilst in Paris, the sitters gaze is void of emotion, shrouding her in mystery.  

Parthenis' work is key to the development of twentieth-century Greek art. As a prominent member of the Techni group of 1917 he was responsible, together  with Konstantinos Maleas (see lots 4, 6 & 20 ) for introducing French ideas on light and colour into Greek painting. This movement, together with Parthenis' teachings at the Athens School of Fine Arts from 1929 to 1947, marked the end of the lingering influences of German Academism, paving the way for a new experimentation in form and colour. 

Parthenis must have regarded Face lost in the shadow of a branch highly, as it was one of the fifty-six paintings he chose to exhibit at the Venice Biennale of 1938. According to Evgenios Matthiopoulos "The difference in his work during this period, in comparison to the style of the preceding decade, was that the curved line had now been succeeded by a more angular schematization, obviously derived from cubism. In his figures and particularly in the architectural elements and the objects in the still lifes, the form is broken up into geometrical shapes and then recomposed, in line with models from the post-cubist work of Braque and Picasso." (quoted in Marina Lambraki Plaka, ed., Four Centuries of Greek Painting, Athens, 1999, p. 465).