GEORGIOS JAKOBIDES (1852-1932) Petite fille lisant

GEORGIOS JAKOBIDES (1852-1932)
Petite fille lisant
signé "G. JAKOBIDES" en haut à gauche
huile sur toile
52,5 x 39,5 cm. (20 11/16 x 15 9/16in.)
Peint c. 1882.

signed "G. JAKOBIDES" upper left
oil on canvas
Provenance
Bonhams London, The Greek Sale, May 20, 2008, lot 22.
Acquired from the above sale by the present owner.

Expositions
Munich, Münchener Kunstverein exhibition, 1882.

Littérature
The artist's notebook 1878-1919, no. 7 (mentioned) [Lesendes Mädchen, 1882].
Neueste Nashrichten newspaper, August 31, 1882 (discussed).
Bayerishher Kourier newspaper, September 2, 1882 (discussed).
Deltion tis Estias magazine, no. 298, September 12, 1882 (discussed).
S. Lydakis, Geschichte det Griechischen Malerei des 19. Jahrhunderts, doctoral dissertation, Prestel-Verlag editions, Munich 1972, p. 239 (listed).
Dictionary of Greek Artists, vol. 4, Melissa editions, Athens 1976, p. 140 (listed).
O. Mentzafou-Polyzou, Jakobides, Adam editions, Athens 1999, no. 52 (catalogued, p. 337, discussed, p. 72, and illustrated, p. 71).
Dictionary of Greek Artists, vol. 2, Melissa editions, Athens 1998, p. 36 (mentioned).
Georgios Jakobides Retrospective, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery and Alexandros Soutzos Museum, Athens 2005, p. 145 (mentioned), p. 146 (discussed), p. 156, fig. VIII (illustrated).
H. Iakovidou, A. Iakovidou, Inside the Picture, Adam editions, Athens 2005, p. 25 (illustrated).

A great example of Jakobides's finest work, Petite fille lisant is a museum-quality jewel by this quintessential Greek painter of young children. As noted by the late Director of the National Gallery in Athens M. Lambraki-Plaka, "Jakobides was one of the most sensitive and at the same time perceptive painters who delved into childhood's psyche. This insightful psychologist and keen observer of human nature was also an unsurpassed draughtsman. This rare combination enabled him to render what he saw and felt with unmatched verisimilitude."¹

In her monograph on the artist, art historian O. Mentzafou-Polyzou discusses the work at length: "In 1882, Jakobides exhibited Girl reading at the Munich Art Society, receiving favourable comments for both its subject and style. A young girl holds a newspaper with utter seriousness and pretends to read in imitation of adult behaviour, directing her gaze through a pair of eyeglasses perched on the tip of her nose. The painter lends the figure a commanding presence through meticulous observation and detailed description. The fine handling of detail in the girl's garments and the concentration of light and shadow effects on her face and hands endow the picture with a sense of genuineness and lively presence."

"Without abandoning the narrative, humoristic aspect of kindermalerei, in this work Jakobides closely adheres to realist principles in the vein of W. Leibl's² truthful figuration, a kinship promptly noted by contemporary critics: 'The painting Petite fille lisant exhibited by Jakobides is very attractive and beautiful. The harmonious unity of effect and the excellent draughtsmanship are reminiscent of the subject matter and style of the famed Leibl. The girl is completely absorbed in reading; the viewer forms the impression that, though silent, her glowing lips are vaguely moving. The overall handling is impeccable. Such naturalness should appeal to everybody.'³ And it is not just the supreme clarity of the rendered figure that recalls 16th and 17th Flemish art and can be related to the work of Leibl, nor the painstaking realism in rendering detail, achieved through the concentrated lighting of specific areas, that bring out the work's superior pictorial quality. It is mainly the isolation and presentation of a simple everyday story which stands on its own right without having to depend on complementary themes."⁴

For Jakobides, childhood hardly ever represented an idealised world. The artist has been recognised as a leading painter of children precisely because he managed to look beyond beautified sentimental stereotypes and capture a wide variety of childhood expressions, from the most contorted, as in Combing Out, to the most subtle and evocative, as in Petite fille lisant.

Here, set against a neutral, monochromatic background, rooted in ancient Greek relief sculpture and Byzantine icon painting, which underscores and highlights the young sitter's elegance and simple grandeur, Jakobides produced, with astonishing wealth of detail and tender minuteness of touch, a masterful rendition of the child's expression and facial characteristics. His greatness is reflected in his ability to observe and record not just an expression, not even the slightest change in expression, but the hint of an expression, one that has not yet become but is on the verge of becoming apparent. Without resorting to intense gesticulations, as in the various versions of the Bad Grandson, the artist captured on canvas the essence of childhood's incessant energy lurking under a seemingly cool surface and the subtle juxtapositions between the seriousness of learning and the instinctive tendency towards play.

¹. M. Lambraki-Plaka, "Georgios Jakobides, the Noble of the Munich School" [in Greek] in Georgios Jakobides Retrospective, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery and Alexandros Soutzos Museum, Athens 2005, p. 12.
². Wilhelm Leibl (1844-1900) was a late 19th century German realist painter who exerted a great influence on the School of Munich.
³. Deltion tis Estias magazine, no. 298, September 12, 1882, p. 2.
⁴. O. Mentzafou-Polyzou, Jakobides [in Greek], Adam editions, Athens 1999, p. 72. See also Mentzafou-Polyzou, "Jakobides, the Painter of Children" [in Greek] in Georgios Jakobides Retrospective, p. 146.