Portraying his wife, Nikolaos Lytras managed to produce one of the most beautiful portraits of modern art. It is indeed a masterpiece, as the artist managed to synthesize two conflicting elements: to create a psychological profile of this beautiful, strong-willed woman, with the vivid gaze and the characteristic gesture, and at the same time to create a very modern painting. The face has been meticulously modelled, while the black dress is painted in broad, pasted brushwork, which creates an effect of volume by its very direction, without any tonal gradation.
Born in Asia Minor, Symeon Savidis was an authentic Orientalist. This painting records the ritual of lighting the pipe. The scene is set in a characteristic interior in a luxurious palace. The old man with the turban and lush caftan is patiently waiting for the pipe to be lit by his slave with the exotic, Mongolian features and the colourful, patched clothes. His face is illuminated by the flames from the fireplace and the reflection of the coal blown by the servant. This has been one of the favourite subjects for painters since antiquity. Dark brown and red tones prevail in this scene, which invokes silence and recollection.
Symeon Savvides is the most authentic Impressionist of the Munich School and perhaps the only one who fully assimilated the theory of light and colour of this School. This was because he conducted his own research and studied the physiology of light, its analysis into the spectrum colours, and the interdependence of light and colour in nature, following atmospheric changes. In front of the Chinese tower in the Munich Park, a joyful bunch of kids in white are going crazy, whirling around a beautiful girl with an umbrella. In the background, a colourful crowd bustles. The painter intended to offer an instant capture, a snapshot of a Sunday walk in the Munich Gardens. We can almost feel the light falling on the white and coloured clothes and animating them. “Ponds” of light form on the grass. The white colour is rendered through light complementary shades of blue and ochre, while only where the sun falls is the white truly pure. The artist wrote, “What if a sun ray suddenly fell on the white dress in the shade? Then that would become the lightest spot throughout the entire event in the work.”
