Charilaos Dikaios, Portrait Of The Lyon Art Dealer And Collector Nicos Dhikeos (1942)

Charilaos DIKAIOS (Nicosia, 1911-2009)
Portrait of Nicos Dhikeos
1942
Clay
H. 38 cm / W. 16 kg
Signed and dated: C Dikeios / 6.12.42

Portrait bust by Charilaos Dikaios of the Lyonnais art dealer and collector Nicos Dhikeos (1899-1987), which is signed and dated 1942. Charilaos Dikaios, an acclaimed Cypriot artist and architect, studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon in the early 1940s, graduating in 1945. From 1942 to 1945, he exhibited at the Salon d'Automne in Lyon. His paintings are dynamic and colourful, while his architecture, including the Maronite Cathedral in Nicosia, is a subtle blend of classicism and modernism. After returning to Cyprus, Dhikeos maintained ties with Lyon, holding solo exhibitions of his paintings there in 1966 and 1976.

Nicos Dhikeos was born in Nicosia in 1899 and came to France in 1916. In the 1930s, he founded the Galerie Saint-François, specialising in Old Master paintings and drawings, on Rue Auguste-Comte in Lyon. More than just an influential dealer, Dhikeos was also a great collector, and works from his collection are now in museums around the world: the Getty Museum, the Pierpont Morgan Library, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art (Washington), the Louvre, the British Museum, and many others. In the early 1980s, Dhikeos played a key role in establishing the Archbishop Makarios III Foundation Art Gallery in Nicosia.

This bust of Dhikeos, recognisable in the photographs (even though he is 20 years older in the photos, which date from 1962), was made in 1942 when Dhikeos was a student at the École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon (and one can sense the influence of the great Lyon sculptress Jeanne Bardey on this portrait). The artist and the collector were clearly united by their Cypriot origins, and this bust represents a special moment and a testament to the cultural and artistic ties between Lyon and Cyprus.