Lot 34: VASILIOS CHATZIS (1870-1915) Seascape/The destroyer Thyella

VASILIOS CHATZIS (1870-1915)
Seascape/The destroyer Thyella
signed in Greek (lower right)
oil on canvas
81 x 168 cm.

Provenance
Property from a European private collection.
Literature
S. Lydakis, The History of Modern Greek Painting, The Greek Painters (vol. 3), Melissa editions, Athens 1976, fig. 245, p. 164 (illustrated) Illustrated in Melissa Editions' The Greek painters vol. 3, this beautifully painted scene of the destroyer 'Thyella' surging through rough seas is an evocative seascape lit by a rising sun. Chatzis, a distinguished exponent of the Munich school, stood out for his dramatic depictions of life at sea, especially for their stylistic treatments. Here, his virtuoso brushwork is mainly evident in the atmosphere, the openness of the sky, mottled with travelling clouds. The jewel-like details of the choppy seas have been portrayed by the artist with effortless brilliance, combining academic principles with a vivid sense of immediacy. As a student at the Athens School of Fine Arts under N. Lytras and K. Volanakis, his works were so impressive they not only rivalled but sometimes even surpassed those of his teachers.
The son of a ship-owner, he sailed on many vessels and studied ships in great detail. In 1912-1913, during the Balkan Wars, he painted a number of exquisite naval battle scenes captured with powerful realism.1
On government orders, he observed operations aboard the warships 'Averoff' and 'Miaoulis' or from the Moudros naval base on the island of Limnos, recording the glorious historical events with spontaneity, directness and strong romantic elements.2
Chatzis updated the Greek marine tradition with a break from the academic approach of the past. As stated by M. Lambraki-Plaka: 'The exodus from the shadowy workshop to the brilliant light of the outdoors was a revelation for painters. There they became aware that the image of nature was being ceaselessly transformed by the flow of time and the change of light, that strong, natural colours bore no relationship to the browns, greys, and whites of traditional landscape painting, that the academic technique, laborious and slow, was inadequate for conceiving of things in their flow and interpreting nature as a continual state of becoming and not just an event. Thus impressionism was born. (...)
Their paintings glow with luminosity, pulse and colour and transmit to the viewer the vitality of euphoria'.3
1. See M. Vlachos, The Greek Seascape Painting [in Greek], Olkos publ. Athens 1993, p. 232.
2. See F. Yofyllis, History of Modern Greek Art[in Greek], vol.1, To Elliniko Viblio publ., Athens 1962, p. 206 and Z. Haidou-Lykouri, "The Pathways of the Sea Meet the Pathways of Art" in The Sea, exh. cat., Municipal Gallery of Athens - Hellenic Maritime Museum, Athens 2000, p. 53.
3. M. Lambraki-Plaka, ed., Four Centuries of Greek Painting, Athens, 1999, p. 352