Vasilios Chatzis was born in Kastoria and died in Athens.

He was the son of a ship owner, and studied at The School of Fine Art, Athens under Constantinos Volanakis and Nikiforos Lytras.

Chatzis was a distinguished seascapist who was initially influenced by The Munich School academic style of the time. He later deviated towards a more impressionist style, using light in a distinctive manner.

So impressive were his works that during the Balkan wars of 1912-1913, he was commissioned by the Greek Government to accompany the Greek Navy, to observe and record operations of the Greek Fleet, aboard the warships 'Averoff' and 'Miaoulis'.

Chatzis’s dramatic depictions of life at sea and virtuoso brushwork made him one of the most accomplished marine painters in Greece. In Battle of Navarino the spectator can experience this.

The Battle of Navarino was a naval battle fought on 20 October 1827, during the Greek War of Independence (1821–32), in Navarino Bay on the west coast of the Peloponnese peninsula, in the Ionian Sea. Allied forces from Britain, France and Russia decisively defeated Ottoman and Egyptian forces trying to suppress the Greek war of independence, thereby making much more likely the independence of Greece.

His works are found in private and public collections, notably: The National Gallery, Athens, The Naval Museum, Greece, The Municipal Gallery, Athens, The Leventis Gallery, Nicosia, The Koutlides Collection, The National Bank of Greece and many other public and private collections.