THEOFILOS HADJIMICHAEL

(1871-1934)

Le héro George Karaiskakis

Footnotes

Provenance
D. Taktikos collection, Mytilene.
Private collection, Athens.

Exhibitions
Athens, Hellenic American Union, An Exhibition of Murals and Paintings by Theophilos, March 17 - April 10, 1970 (listed in the exhibition catalogue, no. 48).

Literature
The Painter Theofilos on Mytilene, exhibition catalogue, Mytilene 1962 (mentioned).
M.G. Moschou, Theofilos Hadjimichail Biographed, doctoral dissertation, University of Athens, Athens 2005, Supplement, Plates, vo.I, no. I.72, p. 14 (mentioned).


*Veuillez noter qu'en raison de la réglementation grecque, ce lot ne peut être exporté de Grèce et sera disponible pour consultation et inspection à Athènes sur rendez-vous ou lors de l'Athens Preview, du 5 au 8 mai 2025. Cette œuvre restera à Athènes pendant la vente aux enchères.

*Please note that due to Greek regulation, this lot cannot be exported from Greece and will be available for viewing and inspection in Athens either by appointment or during the Athens Preview, 5th-8th of May 2025. This work will be located in Athens during the auction.


This monumental work—one of the few surviving wall paintings by Theofilos rescued from decay and destruction and transferred onto panel from its original wall in a village on the island of Mytilene—shows the artist's lifelong fascination with one of the giants of the Greek War of Independence. As noted by Nobel laureate Odysseus Elytis, Theofilos, who was mocked by the narrow-minded society of his time, "responded with a Karaiskakis twice as large as St. George."

The Greek hero is presented on horseback sporting the characteristic fustanella kilt—the same white highland garb the painter himself wore when he left Smyrna for Athens to voluntarily enlist in the 1897 campaign against Turkey and which eventually became his signature attribute. He is portrayed well in view and in such a manner as to show his figure to the best advantage. Much like a Byzantine icon painter, Theofilos depicts his subject based on pictorial and iconographic conventions sanctioned by tradition and adjusted to a preconceived scale of values—an approach to painting rooted in folk art and reminiscent of the Karaghiozi shadow-puppets or descriptions found in demotic songs.

The hero's stature is emphasized by his group of warriors who are shown much smaller in size despite being in the extreme foreground and, consequently, much closer to the viewer's eye. Here, Theofilos takes full advantage of art's liberating freedom that recognises no limitations when it comes to scale or perspective. The wealth of detail in this band of young horseback palikares, as well as the inscription at the upper right, reading "Georgios Karaiskakis hounding Reshid Pasha Kiutahi," are vehicles of initiation into the artist's vision; a means of rendering more tangible to the spectators' imagination the world of gallantry and legend they are invited to contemplate.