Constantinos Volanakis

Afentoulis Collection

Stelios Lydakis, History of Greek Painting, Munich, 1972, no. 62, illustrated
Stelios Lydakis, Constantinos Volanakis, Athens, 1997, pp. 104-105, no. 59, illustrated 

Original canvas. The colours are richer than they appear in the catalogue. There is a patch on the reverse of the composition which corresponds to a repair to the centre of the lower edge (this can be improved upon), and some very minor flecks of retouching to the sky along the upper edge. The painting is in overall very good condition, and ready to hang. Held in an ornate, gold-painted moulded plaster and wood frame.
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The present work is a prime example of Volanakis' sensitive depiction of atmospheric conditions and natural elements within the cadre of the traditional marine painting. The painting is infused with delicate detail, complementing while not overwhelming the calm, glowing ambience for which Volanakis' work is renowned, revealing impressionist, plein air tendencies stylistically advanced for Greece at the time. The broad expanse of horizon reflected in the tranquil surface of the sea, frames the expertly rendered boats and the figures.  

Volanakis is an artist of great importance in both the nineteenth-century and marine genre, most notably for his position as a key member of the Greek 'Munich School' movement of academic realism, almost belying the warmth and immediacy of his seascapes. 

Volanakis' blossoming interest in marine subjects was first exposed during his tenure as an accountant in the sugar firm of his brother-in-law Georgios Afentoulis, when his idle sketches of the harbour and small ships on the firm's ledgers drew the enthusiastic attention of his employer. Volanakis was duly sent, with the financial backing of his family, to the Academy of Arts in Munich, where he studied under Karl von Piloty. After his studies he worked in Munich and travelled to Venice and Trieste, cities whose picturesque port and harbour-oriented topography would prove inspirational.

As stated by the writer Pavlos Nirvanas, '[Volanakis'] soul had many ships to travel on and every wave knew it and beckoned to it' (Anreas Ioannou, Greek Painting in the 19^th Century, Athens, 1974). The artist's love of the sea, the ships and figures that staffed them, would lead him to retire to Piraeus in his later years to paint seascapes until his death in 1907.