Lot 13: Périclès Pantazis (Greek, 1849-1884) Yellow Roses 50 x 41.5 cm.

Périclès Pantazis
(Greek, 1849-1884)
Yellow Roses signed 'Pantazis' (lower right)oil on canvas 50 x 41.5 cm.

Provenance: Galerie Georges Giroux, Brussels, auction no. 128, 17 March 1934, lot 132.Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 5 December 1990, lot 744.Private collection, Athens.LiteratureO. Mentzafou-Polyzou et al., Pericles Pantazis 1849-1884, Evangelos Averoff-Tositsas Foundation, Athens 1994, no. 167, p. 210 (catalogued), p. 121 (illustrated).Against a scumbled dark green backdrop wall, comparable to still lifes by Chardin and Boudin, Pantazis juxtaposes an evocative bouquet of roses placed casually in an unadorned vase. Relying on rich, confident brushwork, tactile texture, careful tonal gradations and a restricted palette limited to tones of creamy yellow, peach, pale rose, white and green (recalling Monet's Two Roses on a Tablecloth, 1882-83, in the Museum of Modern Art, New York)1, Yellow roses is an intimate Pantazis, boldly capturing the essence of its subject. Deeply and inventively engaged in the indoor art of still life, Pantazis skilfully combined acute observation with purely pictorial values, producing a masterly effect of objects seeming at once weight-bound and floating in space. 1. See Impressionist Still Life, exhibition catalogue, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 2002, pp. 144-145.