Constantinos Parthenis (Greek, 1878-1967)Alentours de l'Acropole signé et daté 'C. Parthenis 1909' (en bas à gauche)huile sur toile80 x 85cm (31 1/2 x 33 7/16in).Peint en 1909.signed and dated (lower left)oil on canvasFootnotes:ProvenanceSpyros Loverdos collection, Athens.Thence by descent to the present owner.ExpositionsParis, Galerie de la Boétie, Group Techni (Oeuvres d'un Groupe d'Artistes Héllènes), September 1-30, 1919, no. 98.Athens, Athens Technological Institute exhibition hall, Exhibition of Paintings by C. Parthenis, January 26 - February 9, 1966, no. 20 (listed in the exhibition catalogue).Athens, National Gallery - Alexandros Soutzos Museum, Metamorphoses of the Modern, The Greek Experience, May 14 - September 13 1992, no. 6 (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue p. 33). Athens, National Gallery - Alexandros Soutzos Museum, Constantinos Parthenis, Painting an Ideal Greece , June 20, 2022 - April 9, 2023 (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, p. 163). LittératureC. Parthenis, 1964 Calendar, Heracles-Olympos General Cement Company, Athens 1963 (illustrated).Y. Tsarouchis, 'The Work of Parthenis', speech delivered at the Athens Technological Institute on February 2, 1966 (mentioned). Nea Estia magazine, no. 927, February 15, 1966, pp. 232, 268 (discussed).Eikones magazine, no. 537, February 4, 1966, p. 44 (mentioned).The Greek Painters, 20th Century, vol. II, Melissa editions, Athens 1975, pp. 19-20, 23 (discussed), p. 35, fig. 18 (illustrated).Xydis, Propositions for the History of Modern Greek Art, vol. I, Olkos editions, Athens 1976, pp. 75-76 (discussed).S. Lydakis, The History of Modern Greek Painting (16th-20th Century),The Greek Painters, vol. III, Melissa editions, Athens 1976, p. 363 (discussed).T. Spiteris, Three Centuries of Modern Greek Art 1660-1967, Athens 1979, vol. III, p. 220 (mentioned).C. Christou, Greek Painting 1832-1922, National Bank of Greece edition, Athens 1981, p. 110 (mentioned), p. 161 (listed).A. Kotidis, The Painter C. Maleas (1879-1928), doctoral dissertation, Thessaloniki 1982, pp. 59, 206 ft. ie (mentioned).Landscapes of Greece by Parthenis, 1984 Calendar / February, National Bank of Greece, Athens 1983 (illustrated).C. Christou, Konstantinos Parthenis, Vienna-Paris-Athens, (exhibition catalogue), Foundation for Hellenic Culture - Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, Athens 1995, pp. 23, 24 (mentioned).E. Matthiopoulos, Greek Participation in the Venice Biennales 1934-1940, doctoral dissertation, vol. III, Rethymno 1996, p. 829, ft.199 (mentioned).Dictionary of Greek Artists, Melissa editions, vol. III, Athens 1999, p. 472 (mentioned).A. Kotidis, Constantinos Maleas, Adam editions, Athens 2000, p. 61 (mentioned).A. Kouria, Michalis Economou, Adam editions, Athens 2001, pp. 119, 126 fn.35 (discussed), p. 120 (illustrated).K. Perpinioti-Agazir, Le 'Groupe Tekhni', doctoral dissertation, Université Paris I - Panthéon Sorbonne 2002, vol. I, p. 178 (mentioned), vol. III, 674 (catalogued), vol. reproductions I, pl. LXXVII (illustrated).A. Xydis, Constantinos Parthenis, Ta Nea editions, Athens 2006, pp. 47-50, 97-99 (discussed), pp. 44-45, 46, 47 (illustrated).E. Matthiopoulos, The Life and Work of Costis Parthenis, K. Adam editions, Athens 2008, no. 74, p. 66 (mentioned), p. 418 (catalogued), p. 163 (illustrated).Parthenis is not a painter who depicts nature.He is a painter who interprets nature. Z. Papantoniou1A Parthenis masterpiece, as iconic and breathtaking as Slope and the Port of Kalamata at the Athens National Gallery, Alentours de l'Acropole is a powerful landscape unleashed in paint. The creative force and freedom in the handling of colour finds its match in the boldness of execution, creating a pictorial formulation that lies at the core of his achievement as a painter. Setting his easel outdoors, Parthenis radically simplified nature to concentrate on chromatic and painterly matters. Rather than striving for topographical accuracy or resorting to the picturesque, he relied exclusively on purely pictorial means to capture the exuberance and zest of Attica's nature. Although he painted the view in front of him with complete directness, he did so with a deep understanding of the landscape as a complex entity. The Parthenon, this classical masterpiece and symbol of everlasting value, blends in harmoniously with the violet luminosities and variable pulse of the surrounding landscape, underscoring its infinite and eternal nature. Parthenis treats the monument not as a lifeless relic of ancient glory but as a living organism; a form of eternity constantly reborn in the present. In his hands the Parthenon becomes a verse of lyric poetry. In such an evocative setting inhabited by dematerialised forms and charged with timeless references, painting is lifted to the realm of music, the most immaterial of all arts. Every part of the landscape is animated by colour and lit by grace, endowing the composition with an allegorical evocation, elegiac feel, and universal character. Land, monument and sky come together, with sharp outlines, bold colouring, and cooler and warmer tones producing a rhythmic outcome. To make such an irresistibly beautiful and at the same time well-formulated picture, Parthenis drew from the colour expressionism of the fauves and Cezanne's use of paint as a structural element. While the work of Cezanne taught him compositional discipline, Gauguin and the Pont-Aven School encouraged him to focus on the expressive use of line and elevate the horizon, extending the pictorial surface to the limits of the canvas without the illusion of receding space. Much like the post-impressionists, Parthenis was interested not only in delivering a fabric of brushstrokes and colour marks but also in weaving together light and structure in a unified pictorial experience.Suffused with eternal light, Alentours de l'Acropole transcends the fleeting sensations of the impressionist glance to remould the luminous landscape by means of pure colour's suggestive force. The artist's perceptive handling of the natural environment, combined with a poetic interpretation of visual reality come together in a work of great artistic sensitivity, poetic charm and spiritual uplift. This seminal work claims the eye and provokes the viewer's emotional participation, reflecting the vision of an artist loaded with age-old memories and entranced by the dynamism and boldness of the twentieth century.2 1 Z. Papantoniou, Valkanikos Tahydromos newspaper, May 11, 1920.2 See D. Papastamos, Painting 1930-1940, Astir Insurance edition, Athens, 1981, p. 68.This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: ARAR Goods subject to Artists Resale Right Additional Premium.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
