Georgios Jakobides

Private Collection, Athens

Athens, National Gallery and Alexandros Soutzos Museum, Jakobides Retrospective, November 2005 - January 2006

Olga Metzafou-Polyzou, Georgios Jakobides, Athens, 1999, p. 94 & p. 340, no. 83, illustrated
Marina Lambraki-Plaka, National Gallery and Alexandros Soutzos Museum Calendar 2006, Georgios Jakobides (1853-1932) The Painter of Childhood, Athens, 2005, illustrated  
Olga Metzafou-Polyzou, Jakobides Retrospective, Athens, 2005, p. 47 & p. 166, no. 54, illustrated  
 
 

This gently humorous image executed in a flurry of feathery brushstrokes is a fine example of the studies of children for which Jakobides is best known, and an elucidating companion to another Jakobides portrait in this sale, Grandpa's New Pipe (lot 9). Obvious parallels can be drawn between the pieces' earth-toned, neutral backgrounds, the soft-edged focus on the subject, and the sentimentality of the theme. Jakobides' sentimentally-tempered realism and canniness regarding subject matter is shared between both depictions of aspects of childhood. In both works a child attempts to enter into the world of adulthood prematurely and to comic effect: a young boy smoking an adult's pipe and a toddler attempting to eat an apple, each mimicking the actions of their elders.

In the present work, the skill and eloquence of the artist's draughtsmanship is used to optimum effect. Jakobides' background as a pupil of Gysis and Lytras and his membership in the Munich School reveals itself in the simultaneously loose yet deliberate rendering, as well as the straightforward composition and proximity of the subject within the picture space. This is an intimate while carefully-rendered image, and Jakobides' eternal appreciation of craft and his insistence on the painter's obligation towards being a 'faithful interpreter of nature' flowers in the presence of the discerning eye for engaging themes and subjects.