Nikiforos Lytras
Nikiforos Lytras ( Greek Νικηφόρος Λύτρας ; * 1832 in Pyrgos on Tinos ; † June 14, 1904 in Athens ; also Nikephoros Lytras, Nikiphoros Lytras transcribed ) was one of the greatest Greek painters and professors of painting during the 19th century. He is considered to be one of the most important representatives of the realism painting of the so-called Munich School , and one of the first designers of the teaching of the fine arts in Greece.
Life
Nikiforos Lytras was the son of a sculptor of folk art. In 1850, at the age of 18, he went to Athens with his father and enrolled at the local college of fine arts . There he studied painting as a pupil of the Margaritis brothers, the German Ludwig Thiersch and the Italian Raffaelo Ceccoli . After completing his studies in 1856, he taught elementary drawing at the Athens School of Art. In 1860 he went to Munich with a grant from the Greek government to deepen his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich . His teacher was Karl von Piloty , the most important representative of the painting of historical realism in Germany.
With the exile of King Otto in 1862, the Greek state interrupted the scholarship granted to him. Thereupon the rich Greek baron Simon von Sina , ambassador of Greece in Vienna , took over the study costs of Lytras.
In the summer of 1865, a short time before his return to Greece, he met his future friend Nikolaus Gysis for the first time , who had recently arrived in Munich to study at Piloty's side. Together with Gysis they visited art exhibitions, museums and picturesque villages in Bavaria during this time .
After returning to Greece he became a professor at the Athens School of Art. He held the chair in the Faculty of Fine Art for 38 years. In 1873 he went on a three-day trip to Smyrna in Asia Minor together with Gysis . A year later he went back to Munich and returned to Athens in April 1875. In September 1876, accompanied by Gysis, he traveled again to Munich and later to Paris . In 1879 he visited Egypt and in the winter of the same year he married Irene Kyriakides, the daughter of a wealthy merchant from Smyrna. A year later, Antonios, the first of their six children, was born. It was followed by the sons Nikolaos, Othon, Pericles and Lysandros, and the daughter Chrysauge. The son of Nikolaos Lytras also became a painter with a rich and important work.
During his artistic activity as a painter and his teaching activities at the art school, Lytras achieved early recognition and fame. With him many important painters learned who later went different artistic paths. Among others Georgios Iakovidis , Périclès Pantazis , Georgios Roilos and Nikolaos Vokos .
In the summer of 1904, Lytras died at the age of 72 after a brief illness of poisoning believed to be caused by chemical substances in his paints. A few months earlier, his old student Georgios Iakovidis took over his chair at the university.
Works
During his time as a student of Piloty, Lytras dealt with so-called historical painting. Works related to mythology and Greek history were created. During the Munich period z. B. the works:
- The hanging of the patriarch Gregorios V
- Penelope dissolves her woven fabric
- Antigone before the dead Polynices
With his return to Greece Lytras began to occupy himself with portraits, but also with subjects of rural and urban life. Customs and snapshots inspired some of his now known "moral works":
- Lament of the fishermen
- The milkman
- Child rolling a cigarette
- The expectation
- Queen Olga of Greece
His travels to Asia Minor and Egypt enriched his paintings with depictions of black African children, fellahs , hodjas and other elements of the "mysterious Orient" popular in the West.
The works of his last years are inspired by melancholy of old age , religious unrest and premonitions of death. Towards the end of his life, ascetic and black-clad figures appeared in his pictures instead of slim and elegant girls.
Lytras was one of the most popular artists in the Athenian art community of his time. He took part in many exhibitions and received numerous awards, for example at the Olympics from 1859 to 1889, the World Exhibition in Paris in 1855, 1867, 1878 and 1900, the World Exhibition in Vienna in 1873 and at the regular exhibitions of the Parnassos Art Association . He created the commemorative medals for the first Olympic Games in Athens in 1896 .
As the official portraitist of high Athenian society, he created full-length portraits of members of important families, as well as of the directors of the National Bank of Greece and other important citizens. The life-size oil painting of the Queen of Greece, Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna Romanova , dates from around 1867 and was carried out on an official commission. The sessions with the very young Queen took place in the Palace of Athens.
Through his many years of teaching at the Athens School of Art, he laid an important foundation stone for the development of modern painting in Greece. Although as an artist he remained attached to painting of academic realism throughout his life, unaffected by the currents of impressionism , he encouraged his students to be open to new tendencies in painting. Thus he not only ensured the development of Greek painting as an artist, but also as a teacher for its further development and for decisive impulses. His view of art becomes clear in one of his quotes: "The love of beauty is the bridge between God and man" .
In 1903 the Greek government honored him with the Golden Cross of the Savior. In 1909, five years after his death, works by Lytras were on view in Munich in the exhibition “Die Schule von Piloty” in the Heinemann gallery . In 1933 the Athens School of Art organized a retrospective of 186 works by the artist.
Web links
- Short biography in English on the Tinos Island website
- Greek article on Lytras
- Short biography of Lytras in Greek and illustrations of some of his works
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lytras, Nikiforos |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Lytras, Nikephoros; Λύτρας, Νικηφόρος (Greek) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Greek painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1832 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Pyrgos on Tinos |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 14, 1904 |
| Place of death | Athens |