THEOFILOS HADJIMICHAEL (1871-1934) Lot n° 42

Homme de Lesvos et fille pigments naturels sur carton 69 x 66.5cm (27 3/16 x 26 3/16in). natural pigments on card £13000-17000 As noted by folk painting scholar G. Samourkas, “Theofilos's Mytilene period, which lasted from around 1926 until his passing in 1934, was his most mature; his designs became more confident, his colours warmer, his compositions more structured, his backdrops more embellished and his colour combinations more elegant.”1 Here, this seductive dual portrait of Mytilene folk is lovingly filtered through the artist's imagination and imbued with a spirit of untutored simplicity. The right part of the picture is dominated by the commanding presence of a moustachioed man in a traditional eastern Aegean costume, featuring a black vraka worn over an undergarment, a waistcoat, a sash wrapped around the waist, and a velvet toque headgear (compare Theofilos, Peasants of Mytilene, Theofilos Museum of Folklore Art, Vareia, Mytilene). On the left, a young girl in a european outfit, handled with confident brushwork and vibrant colour, is perfectly integrated into her environment, evoking a sense of home and domesticity. Both portraits express the artist's lifelong fascination with Greek nature, conveying a feeling of pure vision and vibrant life. Although the picture has a contemporary western touch, it is nonetheless handled in a fashion rooted in age-long Byzantine and folk art traditions, such as the egg-shaped faces, the well-delineated features and the frontal posture, which is a defining feature of Byzantine icon painting. 1 G. Samourkas, Twelve Folk Painters [in Greek], Athens 1974, p. 90.