NIKOLAOS LYTRAS (1883-1927) Paysage grec avec deux arbres

NIKOLAOS LYTRAS (1883-1927)
Paysage grec avec deux arbres
signé en grec en bas à droite
huile sur carton dur
30 x 50 cm. (11 7/16 x 18 7/8in.)

signé in Greek lower right
oil on cardboard
Provenance
Private collection, NY.

Captured in glowing oranges, vibrant greens and mesmerizing lavenders, and handled with textured, energetic brushstrokes, the smooth rolling hills, low-rise trees, and age-old mountains of a typically Greek landscape become powerful means of communicating the artist's acute perception and intense experience of nature. The simplified surfaces with their syncopated rhythm, and pellucid, pure forms in a translucent atmosphere, the corporeality of the picture plane, and the gestural brushwork convey to the viewer a sense of immediacy and an impression of a first-hand experience. As noted by A. Kouria and D. Portolos, who prepared the artist's monograph¹, Lytras's landscape views are stripped of the often idealised descriptiveness of traditional naturalistic renderings. His landscapes are rugged, frugal, without beautifying tricks or decorative framings, lending the Greek landscape a new formal identity and meaning.

¹.See A. Kouria, D. Portolos, Nikos Lytras, Building Form with Color and Light [in Greek], exhibition catalogue, National Gallery - A. Soutzos Museum, Athens 2008, pp. 107-109, 113.