Nikolaos Gyzis

Nikolaos Gyzis was born in Sklavochori, Tinos, in 1842. In 1850, his family moved to Athens. He studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts from 1854 to 1864 and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich from 1865 to 1871. He returned to Athens in 1872 for two years. In 1874 he made Munich his home and began to focus on Greek genre scenes inspired by village life. He traveled to Asia Minor (1873), Venice (1874), Paris (1876 and 1878), and Tyrol (1881). He created works for the Museums of Decorative Arts in Kaiserslautern (1878 – 80) and Nuremberg (1895 – 99), which were destroyed during World War II.

In 1882, he became a professor at the Munich Academy. He visited Greece for the last time in 1895. He designed posters, diplomas, and relief medals. His late oeuvre reveals a turn toward the idealist, the allegorical, and the metaphysical. A master of drawing and chiaroscuro, he is considered a pioneer of the Munich School and one of the greatest Greek painters. He died in Munich in 1901. Retrospectives were organized by the Society of the Friends of the Arts at Iliou Melathron (1928) and by the National Gallery in Athens (2001). His letters were published in 1953.