Nikolaos Lytras (Greek, 1883-1927)Galatsi signed in Greek (lower right)oil on canvas53 x 73 cm.注脚Painted c. 1917.ProvenanceG. Zevgolis collection, Athens.Private collection, Athens.ExhibitedAthens, Geo advertising agency exhibition hall, 1920, no. 19 or 20.Athens, Zappeion Hall, Exhibition of Works by Nikolaos N. Lytras 1902-1927, 1929, no. 83 (listed in the exhibition catalogue, p. 6).Venice, XX Biennale Internationale d'Arte, Greek Pavillion, Mostra Individuale Retrospettiva del Pittore Nicola N. Lytras, June 1 - September 30, 1936, no. 101 (listed in the general exhibition catalogue, p. 283).LiteratureH.G. Gotsi, The Painter Nikos Lytras 1883-1927 (graduate thesis), Thessaloniki 1992, pp. 87-88 (discussed), no. 40 (illustrated).E. Mathiopoulos, The Participation of Greece in the Venice Biennale 1934-1940, doctoral dissertation, vol. 2, Rethymno 1996, p. 620 (listed). A. Kouria, D. Portolos, Nikos Lytras, Building Form with Colour and Light, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery - A. Soutzos Museum & Hellenic Literary and Historical Archive, Athens 2008, no. 62, p. 114 (discussed and illustrated), p. 299 (catalogued), p. 120 (illustrated).Much more than displaying an intricate fabric of energetic brushstrokes and textured surfaces that betray the hand of a master expressionist, this amazing work aims directly at the essence of things, seeking to capture the inner rhythm, eternal structure and timeless canon of the austere, age-old Attic landscape; seeking, in other words, not only to identify its unique character but also to interpret its very soul. Rocky terrain, rolling hills and distant mountains are handled not just as patterns of light and shade in a sequence of receding planes but, rather, as a means of communicating the artist's intense experience of their primordial volumes. In his 1920 showing at the Geo art gallery in Athens, where he co-exhibited with his close friend, the sculptor Grigoris Zevgolis, the landscape of Attica was well represented with fine pieces, including this exquisite view from Galatsi. As noted by A. Kouria and D. Portolos, who prepared the artist's monograph, "the Attic landscape persistently claimed Lytras's attention since it was sparse, barren, with pellucid, pure forms and planes in a translucent atmosphere and with an innate rhythm. His views are rugged, frugal, without beautifying tricks or decorative framings, often relying instead on a limited and very restrained palette."1 The large, energetic Cezannesque forms rendered in broad, long, continuous brushstrokes in the vein of van Gogh, as well as the overall development of oblique lines and upward undulating rhythms are woven into an abstract tapestry of successive volumes, welding the image into such a compelling entity that even the artist's signature on the lower left seems organically integrated in the pictorial surface, as if it were an 'indigenous' part of the landscape.1 A. Kouria, D. Portolos, Nikos Lytras, Building Form with Color and Light [in Greek], exhibition catalogue, National Gallery - A. Soutzos Museum, Athens 2008, pp. 107-109, 113.