Demetrios Galanis ( el, Δημήτριος Γαλάνης, 17 May 1879,

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

– 20 March 1966,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

) was an early twentieth-century Greek

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

and friend of

Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

. In 1920, the year he completed his ''Seated Nude'' (private collection), he exhibited alongside such major figures of modern art as

Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...

and

Braque Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculpture, sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his all ...

, while from 1921 on he also exhibited alongside Juan Gris, Dufy,

Chagall Marc Chagall; russian: link=no, Марк Заха́рович Шага́л ; be, Марк Захаравіч Шагал . (born Moishe Shagal; 28 March 1985) was a Russian-French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with se ...

, and Picasso. By the early 1920s Galanis was famous in France and preparing for shows in Brussels, London, and New York. In 1920–21 he frequently exhibited in Paris and in 1922 his first one-man exhibition received the enthusiastic critical response that established his reputation. ''Seated Nude'' was among the pictures exhibited, and in an introduction to the exhibition André Malraux described the artist's work as "having the power to stir emotions equivalent to that of

Giotto Giotto di Bondone (; – January 8, 1337), known mononymously as Giotto ( , ) and Latinised as Giottus, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle Ages. He worked during the Gothic/Proto-Renaissance period. Giot ...

." This show established Galanis’s reputation as a painter and confirmed the favourable opinions already expressed on the quality of his work. Critics of his time paid much more attention to his figurative work than his landscapes, confirming the well-established view that Galanis’s first and foremost concern was his love for the human form. Galanis received greater critical acclaim abroad in his lifetime than any other Greek modern artist of the early 20th century. The French state honoured him with the highest distinctions: full professor at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris and a lifelong member of the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

. Having moved to Paris in 1900, living in

Montmartre Montmartre ( , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Right Bank. The historic district established by the City of Paris in 1995 is bordered by Rue Ca ...

for fifty years in a house which is now the Musée de Montmartre, Galanis developed his artistic talent beyond painting. He was also known for his illustrative wood-engravings in books, such as the Limited Editions Club of

Sophocles Sophocles (; grc, Σοφοκλῆς, , Sophoklễs; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, at least one of whose plays has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or co ...

' ''

Oedipus the King ''Oedipus Rex'', also known by its Greek title, ''Oedipus Tyrannus'' ( grc, Οἰδίπους Τύραννος, ), or ''Oedipus the King'', is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed around 429 BC. Originally, to the ancient Gr ...

'' and the

Cresset Press The Cresset Press was a publishing company in London, England, active as an independent press from 1927 for 40 years, and initially specializing in "expensively illustrated limited editions of classical works, like Milton's '' Paradise Lost''" go ...

edition of

John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem '' Paradise Lost'', written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political ...

's ''

Paradise Lost ''Paradise Lost'' is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse (poetry), verse. A second edition fo ...

''. The Limited Editions Club published 1500 signed copies in 1955 and the sister organization,

Heritage Press The Heritage Press is a trade name which has been used by multiple printers and publishers. Most notably, "The Heritage Press" was an imprint of George Macy Companies, Ltd., from 1937 to 1982. The Heritage Press reprinted classic volumes previousl ...

, then reprinted unsigned volumes. The most significant collection of Galanis's work is held in the Teloglion Foundation at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, although examples can also be found in London's

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

. His famous ''Seated Nude'' sold at auction for $221,860 in May 2006. Sources 1.''Galanis.'' "EI" Magazine of European Art Center (EUARCE) of Greece, 13st issue 1996, p. 14&30-31 ''(The strong ties of friendship that bound poet Yannis Koutsoheras are vividly described in an old text by the former, published in this issue for the first time)''

External links

Artnet.com page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Galanis, Demetrios 1879 births 1966 deaths Greek educators 20th-century Greek painters 19th-century Greek painters Artists from Athens People of Montmartre Greek emigrants to France