Lot 63: SYMEON SABBIDES

SYMEON SABBIDES GREEK 1859-1927 ORIENTALIST STREET SCENE (POSSIBLY NORTH AFRICA) signed lower right oil on canvas laid on board 38 by 43cm., 15 by 17in.

Private Collection, Athens

In 1880, Sabbides began studying at the Royal Academy in Munich, and studied painting there for seven years, becoming close friends with Nikolaos Gysis, who was one of his tutors. Along with other illustrious Greek painters, whose names include Altamoura, Jakobides, Ralli and Lembessis, Sabbides belonged to the generation of Greek painters who went beyond the academicism of the Munich Royal Academy. He exhibited at the Glaspalast and at international exhibitions in Munich, Leipzig, Vienna, Paris and London around the turn of the 20th Century.

Although essentially based in Bavaria until the final years of his life, Sabbides travelled extensively in North Africa and Turkey, having grown up in Tokat. These sojourns are evidenced here, with a sensitive palette of dazzling whites mixed with blues and yellows which underline the oppressive heat of the street and the relative cool available within the home, whose door is left invitingly open. Sabbides deploys his impressionist palate, characterised by short brushstrokes, and scientific mind, ever open to the challenges of depicting light and colour, to this everyday scene on an oriental street.