Portrait Of A Noble Greek Boy By Spyridon Prosalentis (1830-1895)

Spyridon Prosalentis (1830-1895) (Greek)

Title: Portrait of a Noble Boy

Date: 1865

Medium: Oil on canvas

Provenance : From a private London collection and signed middle lower right.

Overall size with the frame is 74cm x 60cm x 3cm and the painting measured at 60cm x 47cm

The present work is a beautifully composed oil-on-canvas bust-length portrait of a Greek boy from the nobility painted by the highly sought-after 19th century Greek painter of portraits and genre landscapes Spyridon Prosalentis. Almost certainly painted on his return to Athens from Venice in 1865, the portrait is of the highest quality and wonderfully captures the seemingly thoughtful personality of the sitter - a work almost certainly commissioned by a noble Athenian family of the period.

The painting was most likely completed during a period when the painter had been appointed as Professor of painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts.

Spyridon Prosalentis was a Greek portrait painter of the Heptanese School. He himself was descended from a noble Byzantine family, who fled to areas under the control of the Venetian Republic after the Fall of Constantinople. His father was Pavlos Prosalentis, who is considered to be the first significant modern Greek sculptor and, in 1811, created Greece's first art school.

His earliest lessons naturally came from his father. Later, he finished his education at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia. He remained in the Austrian Empire until 1865 and, when he returned, received an appointment as Professor of painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts. For unknown reasons, he resigned from that position the following year and went back to Venice.

In 1870, he won a major award at the "Exhibition of Fine Arts" in Parma, and was invited to return to Greece by King George I. He settled in Athens and immediately began to create murals in the chapel of the Old Royal Palace. In 1876, a second chair of painting was established at the School of Fine Arts and he received another appointment as Professor, a position he held until his death. Spyridon Vikatos, Dimitrios Geraniotis and Nikolaos Ferbos were among his students.

Condition report: The painting appears to have been professionally cleaned within the last 40 years or so and has been lined. There appears to be minimal intervention with a few very tiny areas of retouching to the background which are well blended. The canvas is in good tension and the paint surface is even and stable with excellent colour tonality.

The painting is within its original 19th century most likely Italian gilt fluted frame which is in good clean condition.

The artist’s work is very rarely to the market and even the auction prices for his portraits are historically very strong and include:

Spyridon Prosalentis (1830-1895)
Portrait of Epaminonda Deligiorgis
Price realised: GBP 9,430
Estimate: GBP 8,000 – GBP 12,000
signed lower right in Greek
oil on canvas
120 x 95 cm.

PORTRAIT OF THEMISTOCLIS TRICOUPIS
oil on canvas
Estimate 6,000 - 8,000 GBP (11,209 - 14,945 USD)
Realized Price: 7,200 GBP
The Greek Sale
Auction Venue
Sotheby's Olympia
May 24, 2006
Lot 93

Upon commission from the Royal Family of Greece, Prosalentis completed several series of portraits of notable personalities from the Greek Revolution, the University of Athens, and the War and Navy Departments. He also painted some domestic genre scenes, but those are much less familiar.

Prosalentis’ artworks are exhibited at galleries including:

The National Gallery of Greece
Municipal Gallery of Corfu
Teloglion Foundation of Art
Averoff Gallery
The Athens Municipal Gallery
Gallery Koutlides
The National Bank of Greece
The Aristotle University, Athens.


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