Peak-a-Boo (1882) by Gyzis NikolaosNational Gallery of Greece - Alexandros Soutsos Museum
From the middle of the 19th century on, and throughout Europe, under the direct influence of Positivism and in the context of the first industrial revolution and rapid urbanization, the traditional repertoire of painting was abandoned.
The observation of daily life, nature and the objects which surround us, replaced historical and mythological subjects. Here we see two such examples of genre painting (Nikeforos Lytras, Awaiting) and a mythological scene (Nikolaos Kounelakis, Andromeda Bound to the rock).
Genre painting is marked by a basic qualitative difference from Realism.
Foster Mother (1892/1893) by Gyzis NikolaosNational Gallery of Greece - Alexandros Soutsos Museum
This way of painting, also gives us pictures of customs and everyday images, but reduces them to models of an idealized, harmonious, painless and passive life.
First Steps (1892) by Iakovidis GeorgiosNational Gallery of Greece - Alexandros Soutsos Museum
Ιn Greece, Genre painting coincided with the consolidation of the bourgeois class, which nostalgically returned to its rural roots. Indeed, Greek genre painting was inspired by the manners and customs of the Greek people, in the same way the literature of that period was.
The Betrothal of the Children (1877) by Gyzis NikolaosNational Gallery of Greece - Alexandros Soutsos Museum
It is not by chance that the Studies of Folklore and Linguistics were established during the same period, while at the same time, the dispute over the value of Demotic Greek began. Realistic observation and idealism were reconciled in Greek genre painting.
Children's Concert (1900) by Iakovidis GeorgiosNational Gallery of Greece - Alexandros Soutsos Museum
Genre painting gave Greek painters the opportunity to display their abilities in composition, drawing, color, and the rendering of light and texture.
Texts: Marina Lampraki-Plaka, Professor Emeritus of the History of Art, ex-Director, National Gallery - Alexandros Soutsos Museum, Athens
Project leader: Efi Agathonikou, Head of Collections Department, National Gallery - Alexandros Soutsos Museum, Athens
Images: Stavros Psiroukis & Thalia Kimpari, Photographic Studio, National Gallery - Alexandros Soutsos Museum, Athens
Digital curation: Dr. Alexandros Teneketzis, Art Historian & Marina Tomazani, Art Historian, Curator, National Gallery - Alexandros Soutsos Museum
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