NIKIFOROS LYTRAS GREEK, 1832-1904

The present work will be included in the forthcoming Nikiforos Lytras monograph being prepared by Dr. Nelly Missirli.

We are grateful to Nelly Missirli for providing the catalogue note and additional information for this work.

Purchased from Nikiforos Lytras in Greece by the great-grandfather of the present owner, the then French ambassador to Greece; thence by descent in the family to the present owner

Athens, Panhellenic exhibition, 1888
Athens, Parnassos exhibition, 1902

Anatoli Magazine, 1902 (as The Easter Egg)
Panathinea, issue 12, September 1906 (as Peasant)
Easter Acropolis Magazine, April 1888, a version of the present work illustrated on the cover

According to Dr. Nelly Missirli: "With this work, Lytras continues the series of genre subjects, characterized by a single figure carrying out some form of work, which he began with In the kitchen (see lot 6), and which were initially inspired by the Düsseldorf School painter Ludwig Knaus. It was a genre Lytras furthermore explored in many of his subsequent works, such as The Betrothed, The Kiss, The Wait, I Don’t Like School, The Orphan, The Milkman, etc..

The Easter Egg can be counted amongst Lytras's most beautiful compositions and is distinguished by his sensitivity to the secondary elements, its quality of execution, and by the simple yet luminous colour palette. The child’s expression, absorbed in the peeling of the Easter egg as well as the movement of her hand as she touches the egg’s thin peel, reveals Lytras’s painterly genius. The bright red of her skirt, juxtaposed with the white undergarment, the colourful scarf and the various shades of brown within the composition combine to leave the artist's unmistakable imprint.

The signature on the present work is in Latin script, suggesting it was among the paintings that Lytras created in Munich, during his second stay there in 1874-1875. At this time, Lytras had rented a studio where he painted relentlessly. The work also displays the talent of a painter confident in his ability and must thus belong to his most beautiful creations of the 1870s. In Greece, The Easter Egg was exhibited twice, at the Panhellenic Exhibition in 1888 and in 1902 at the Parnassos Exhibition. In 1902, it was also published in the Magazine Anatoli under the title The Easter Egg. In the September, 1906 issue of Panathinea, it was titled Peasant, while in the exhibition catalogues it was referred to by its proper title The Easter Egg. In 1888, the Easter edition of Acropolis bore a specially adapted version of The Easter Egg on its cover (see fig. 1).

The reason why Lytras exhibited the painting so late after its execution lies in the fact that his friend, Gysis, held back some of Lytras’ paintings in Munich, in an effort to sell or exhibit them. In 1887 he asked Lytras to take them back, because he had no more space. A year later, the work entered the exhibition of 1888."

Fig. 1: The cover of the Easter Acropolis magazine, 24 April 1888, incorporating a variant of the present work