THEOFILOS HADJIMICHAEL (1871-1934)
La maison de Athanassios Koutras à Varia, Lesvos
signé, titré en grec et daté '1932'
huile sur toile
37 x 30.5cm (14 9/16 x 12in.)

signed, titled in greek and dated '1932'
oil on canvas
Footnotes:
Provenance
D.E. Evangelidis collection until 1963.
Acquired from the above by Aristidis Lappas and thence by decent to the previous owner.
Bonhams London Greek Sale of 11 May 2004, lot 77.
Acquired from the above sale by the present owner.

Exposition
Athens, British Council, Theofilos, 2-31 May 1947, no 23.
Athens Hellenic American Union, Theofilos, 7-26 February 1964, no 92.

Littérature
Angloelliniki Epitheorisi magazine, vol. III, no. 1, May 1947, no. 23, back cover (listed).
T. Spiteris, 'Theofilos (Chadjimichail) Works', handwritten list, c. 1960s, T. Spiteris Archive, Tellogleion Art Institute, Thessaloniki, no. GR TITSpit 101102_11, p. 17 (catalogued).


This graceful and seductive portrait of an architectural beauty that used to adorn the artist's native village of Vareia, illustrates the remarks of 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

As inscribed by the artist at the top and bottom of his composition, this age-old pyrgos mansion in the village of Vareia was the residence of the late Athanassios Kottonas, and was no longer standing (probably destroyed by the devastating earthquakes that struck the island in 1867 and 1899). These characteristic Mytilene pyrgoi, are many-storeyed fortified country dwellings, free standing in farm fields or orchards and whose top storeys usually featured wooden projections—the so-called sachnisinia—on one or more sides. They were the summer residencies of wealthy inhabitants, and the older ones date from the last decades of the 18th century.²

¹. G. Samourkas, Twelve Folk Painters [in Greek], Athens 1974, p. 90.
². See I. Vostani-Koumba, Lesvos, Greek Traditional Architecture series, Melissa editions, Athens 1982, pp. 29-36.