Background

Nikolaos Gyzis was born on March 1, 1842 in the village of Sklavochori, on the island of Tinos which has a long artistic history.

Education

As his family settled in Athens in 1850, he soon embarked on a study at the Athens School of Fine Arts. His studies there, formed the foundation of his artistic education and helped him to develop his natural skill in painting.

In 1865, having won a scholarship, he went to continue his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, where he settled for the rest of his life.

Career

He was very soon incorporated into the German pictorial climate, and became one of its most characteristic representatives of the Greek artistic movement of the Munich School. This is expressed in the painting News of Victory of 1871, which deals with the Franco-Prussian War, and the painting Apotheosis i Thriamvos tis Vavarias (Apotheosis or Triumph of Bavaria).

From 1886 onward he was professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, and gradually turned from the detailed realistic depictions towards compositions of a singularly impressionistic character. His students included Ernst Oppler, Fritz Osswald, Anna May-Rychter and Stefan Popescu (Romanian painter).

At the beginning of the 1870s returned to Greece for a period of several years, after which he produced a sequence paintings with more avowedly Greek themes, such as the Carnival at Athens and the Arravoniasmata (Engagement Ceremony) and a little later the painting After the destruction of Psara. Towards the end of his life, in the 1890s, he took a turn toward more religious themes, with his best known work of the later period being Triumph of Religion. His works are today exhibited at museums and private collections in Greece, Germany and elsewhere.

Gysis' painting The Secret School was depicted on the reverse of the Greek 200 drachmas banknote of 1996-2001.

Achievements

• He was most famous for his work Eros and the Painter, his first genre painting. It was auctioned in May 2006 at Bonhams in London, being last exhibited in Greece in 1928. He was the major representative of the so-called "Munich School", the major 19th-century Greek art movement.
  
  The Athenian neighbourhood Gyzi is named after him.

Works

More photos

• painting

  • Βrioche

  • Cards

  • The Apotheosis of Bavaria

  • Punishment of the Thief

  • Capuchin

  • Psyche

  • Table or bread

  • Couple

  • Nymth and Cupid

  • Study for Science

  • Landscape

  • Oriental man with fruit

  • The Apotheosis of Bavaria, study

  • Repentance

  • The confectioner

  • The Glory of Psara

  • Behold the Celestial Bridegroom Cometh ΙΙ (study)

  • Portrait of a girl

  • The spider

  • Drawing

  • Behold the Celestial Bridegroom

  • Peek-a-boo

  • Carnival in Athens

  • Olympic champion

  • Spring Symphony

  • Behold the Celestial Bridegroom Cometh

  • Portrait of Tilemahos Gyzis

  • The barber

  • The soul of the artist

  • Step Mother

  • Head of old man

  • Carnival in Athens

  • Draft of Arts and Spirits

  • Old Man that sew

  • Table with cake

  • Archangel, study for the Foundation of Faith

  • The artist's daughter

  • The liberal arts with their spirits

  • Pastry Man

  • Little Girl

  • Children engagement

  • Girl reading

  • Tmolos

  • Oriental Man with a Pipe

  • Behold the Celestial Bridegroom

  • The orphans

  • Learning by heart

  • Oriental warrior

  • The Secret School

  • Boy with Cherries

  • Ηistoria

  • Grandma and Children

  • Behold the Celestial Bridegroom

  • The Archangel, Study for "The Grounding of Faith"

  • Artemis Gyzi

  • Art and it's Spirits

  • After the memorial service

  • The pain

  • Girl getting cold

  • Girl knitting

  • Mother of God, study

  • Portrait of Artemis Gyzi

  • The vow

  • The Triumph of Religion

  • Flowers

  • The slave market

  • After the destruction of Psara

  • Eros and the painter

  • Girl sewing

  • The Fortune Teller

  • Wishbone