Constantinos Volanakis, Greek 1837-1907

Sale: Sotheby's, London, 15 March 1989, lot 38
purchased by the present owner at the above sale

In By the well Volanakis 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 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.