Nikiforos Lytras ( el, Νικηφόρος Λύτρας; 1832 – 13 June 1904) was a Greek painter. He was born in
Tinos and trained in
Athens at the School of Arts. In 1860, he won a scholarship to Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Munich. After completing these studies, he became a professor at the School of Arts in 1866, a position he held for the rest of his life. He remained faithful to the precepts and principles of the
Munich School, while paying greatest attention both to ethnographic themes and portraiture. His most famous portrait was of the royal couple, Otto and Amalia, and his most well-known landscape a depiction of the region of
Lavrio.
Biography
Nikiforos Lytras was the son of a popular
marble sculptor. In 1850, at the age of eighteen years he went to Athens to study in the
School of Arts School of Arts or school of arts may refer to:
*Art school, an educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts
* Mechanics' institutes, Victorian-era educational establishments formed to provide education, particularly in technical ...
. He studied painting with
Ludwig Thiersch and Raffaelo Ceccoli (c.1800-after 1860). After graduating in 1856, he began teaching an elementary course in writing.
In 1860 with a Greek government's scholarship he went to Munich to study in the
Royal Academy of Fine Arts where after some time, he succeeded in being accepted into the classes of
Karl von Piloty. In 1862 after
King Otto was exiled the scholarship was no longer available to Lytra so the expenses were undertaken by the ambassador of Greece in Vienna
Simon Sinas. In the summer of 1865 before his return to Greece he met
Nikolaos Gyzis
Nikolaos Gyzis ( el, Νικόλαος Γύζης ; german: Nikolaus Gysis; 1 March 1842 – 4 January 1901) was considered one of Greece's most important 19th century painters. He was most famous for his work '' Eros and the Painter'', his first ...
in Munich. There they visited and studied art masterpieces.
Following his return to Athens, Lytras became professor at the
Athens School of Fine Arts in the department of Painting and he taught until the time of his death, some 38 years.
Spyridon Vikatos
Spyridon Vikatos ( el, Σπυρίδων Βικάτος; 24 September 1878 – 6 June 1960) was a Greek painter, one of the later members of the Munich School.
Life
Spyridon Vikatos was born in Argostoli, Cephalonia, in 1878.
He was assisted by t ...
was one of his pupils.
For four years, starting in 1873, he travelled to
Smyrna and
Asia Minor,
Munich and
Egypt with Gyzis during which he produced a number of Orientalist works.
In 1879 he married Irene Kyriakidi daughter of a tradesman from Smyrna and they had six children. His son
Nikolaos Lytras followed in his footsteps by also studying at the Munich academy of Fine Arts and also heading the Athens School of Art. In later life he founded the 'Art Group', which many years later in 1919 exhibited in Paris, with participants including the engraver
Demetrios Galanis, a friend of
Derain,
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 ...
and
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 ...
and a member of the French Academy. The nineteenth-century painters
Ioannis Altamouras and
Periklis Pantazis (both of whom died young) may be regarded as forerunners of this group.
Nikiforos Lytras died at the age of 72 in 1904, after a short illness that is believed to have been caused by his colours' chemical substances. After his death
Georgios Jakobides took his place at the Athens School of Fine Arts.
Art
Lytras oeuvre falls into distinct periods. During the time that Lytras was Piloty's student he focused in
history painting
History painting is a genre in painting defined by its subject matter rather than any artistic style or specific period. History paintings depict a moment in a narrative story, most often (but not exclusively) Greek and Roman mythology and Bible ...
. His subjects were inspired from
Greek Mythology and
Greek history
The history of Greece encompasses the history of the territory of the modern nation-state of Greece as well as that of the Greek people and the areas they inhabited and ruled historically. The scope of Greek habitation and rule has varied throu ...
. After his return to Greece he started to paint portraits and every day life scenes. During this period, he wrote that "The painter should devote himself to genre painting, and to subjects that move, delight, and educate the people".
[Sochos, Xenofon, ''Leukoma Ellinon Kallitechnon-Nikiforos Lytras'', lbum of Greek Artists-Nikiforos Lytras Athens, Typographion Paraskevas, 1929, p. 40] His trips in Minor Asia and Egypt enriched his paintings with Oriental themes, including the people and their lifestyles. In the closing years of his life, he painted many scenes about aging, loneliness and the fear of death.
Lytras was one of the most famous painters in Athens. He participated and honored in many exhibitions: at the
Zappeion exhibitions, as well as in exhibitions in
Paris (1855, 1867, 1878, 1889 and 1900) and in
Vienna (1873). Also as he was the official portraitist in Athens and he painted many members of the upper class of his time.
His contribution in art was conceived also through his courses in the Athens School of Fine Arts. Although devoted to the school of
Academic Realism and remaining uninfluenced by
Impressionism, he marked Greek art history in his own way.
In 1903 he was decorated with the Golden Cross of the
Order of the Redeemer. In 1909 – after his death – some of his paintings were presented in Piloty's School (1885–1886) in Munich. In 1933 in Athens School of Fine Arts an exhibition with Lytras' 186 paintings were presented.
File:Lytras nikiforos antigone polynices.jpeg, '' Antigone in front of dead Polynikes'' (1865), National Gallery of Athens.
File:Lytras Nikiforos sailor smoking.jpg, ''Sailor smoking''
File:Lytras - Execution of Gregory V.jpg, ''Execution of Patriarch Gregory V of Constantinople''
File:Lytras Nikiforos Carols.jpeg, ''Carols''
File:The burning of the Turkish flagship by Kanaris.png, ''The blowing up of Nasuh Ali Pasha's flagship by Kanaris''
File:Lytras Nikiforos prosmoni.jpg, ''The Waiting''
References
Further reading
* ''The Greek Painters from the 19th Century to the 20th Century'', Volume One, Melissa, 1974
External links
*
Official Tinos siteperi-grafisArtfact
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lytras, Nikiforos
1832 births
1904 deaths
Academy of Fine Arts, Munich alumni
People from Tinos
19th-century Greek painters
Munich School
Athens School of Fine Arts faculty