Pericles Pantazis Greek, 1849-84

The present work belongs to the key series of winter landscapes Pantazis executed in Belgium during the later 1870s (see S.G. de Heusch, O. Metzafou-Polyzou & S. Samaras, Pericles Pantazis, Athens, 1994, pp. 74 & 77-84). Characteristically the present work exhibits sombre tones and thick impasto finely applied with a palette knife, a technique that Pantazis had first encountered in the work of Courbet, and which had made a lasting impression on him.

In October 1875 Felicien Rops introduced Pantazis to one of his favourite painting spots - Anseremme - where they spent some time at  the hostel Le Repos des Artistes.  While Rops left to spend the winter in town, Pantazis decided to stay on. He was joined for some time by Maurice Hagemans, who noted in his memoirs ''...Puis Rops m'emmène à Anseremme, cette colonie d'artistes alors si vivante. L'hiver, j'y restai seul avec Pericles Pantazis, cet Hellène amoureux de la neige.'' (Then Rops took me to Anseremme, this vivacious artists colony. During the winter I stayed there on my own with Pericles Pantazis,  that Greek who is in love with snow).

Pantazis' enthusiasm for the white element made him willingly brave freezing conditions in order to paint his snow landscapes before the subject, en plein air. On at least one such occasion Pantazis must have seemed a rather extraordinary sight to passers-by, being half emerged in snow while sitting undeterred at his easel before his subject - a row of heavily snow-laden trees. His friend Guillaume Vogels captured this image in a painting entitled, Pantazis peignant dans la neige.