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Greek, 1879-1951
Head
charcoal on paper
signed lower left
37 x 62 cm
PROVENANCE
private collection, Athens
LITERATURE
The Greek Painters, Vol III, Melissa Editions, Athens, 1976, page 267, image 434 (illustrated)
3 000 / 4 000 € | |
Frixos Aristefs was born in Athens in 1879.
He enrolled at the School of Fine Arts, where he studied painting, from 1892 till 1897 under Constantinos Volanakis, Georgios Roilos, Nikiforos Lytras and Spyros Prossalentis.
He continued his studies in Munich at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts with Nikolaos Gysis and Franz von Stuck, between 1897 and 1900. He spent the next year in Florence before returning permanently to Greece in 1901.
Aristefs worked on lithography, cartoons and illustrations for publications and as an art teacher in secondary education. His subject matter included landscape, portrait, religious and symbolic works.
He is one of the representatives of the ‘Munich School’, but most importantly he is one of few Greek artists that were influenced from ‘Jugendstil’ (Youth Style) that was in vogue during his time in the Bavarian capital. His inclination towards Jugendstil was certainly influenced by the work of both his teachers in Munich, Nikolaos Gysis and Franz von Stuck and he is considered one of the main representatives of this movement in Greece.
His work can be found in the National Gallery of Greece, the Municipal Gallery of Athens, the Municipal Gallery of Rhodes, the Leventis Gallery, the Averoff Gallery and many other public and private collections.