Special Information for the Artist
Thebes, October 19, 1814 - Munich, December 6, 1878
Theodore P. Vryzakis considered the first painter in Greece (after the fall of Ottoman Empire) and the founder of 'Munich School'.
As a child, Theodore Vryzakis lived the hard years of 1821 until the establishment of the independent Greek state. In fact his father, Peter Vryzakis, hanged by the Turks in May 1821. At age 18, in 1832, encouraged a German philologist, he emigrated to Munich, where he lived until his death.
In Munich he started painting, depicting themes is almost exclusively from the Revolution of 1821. In 1844 he was admitted at the Munich Academy, in the same year until 1855, the scholarship of the Greek community in the city. Teachers and friends have some excellent artists philhellenic issues of the romantic era: the Carl Wilhelm von Heideck (aka Heidegger), by Peter von Hess, the Heinrich von Mayer and a few others. During the decade 1845-1855, he traveled to Europe for artistic information, and in the period 1848-1850 has been living in Greece.
In 1855 he participated in the International Exhibition of Paris to the work of the Out of Mesolongi. In this table, himself Vryzakis copied at least twice. Two of the original paintings were destroyed in the fire of Mesolongi 1929. The third prototype is preserved at the National Gallery, but he released a list dating from as early as 1856.
In the three years 1861-1863, painted the Annunciation Greek Church in Manchester, England. In 1867 he took part in the exhibition by Del Vecchio in Leipzig in the tables of the output Mesolonghi Giorgakis Olympian, Lord Byron at Mesolonghi and The Oath of Agia Lavra.
He died in Munich in 1878 and was buried in A Cemetery in the city. In his will, left legacy at the University all the works in his studio and 760 marks for the repair of the roof of the Greek Church of the Redeemer (Salvatorkirche) of Munich.
Vryzakis works are considered the prime examples of Greek romantic painters of the 19th century, who studied in Germany and created the so-called "Munich School".
The oil paintings of - almost all Greek matters - are characterized by grandiose and nostalgic tone of the romantic painters of the 19th century. In their time, his works were much in demand as a lively and faithful reproductions of Greek history. Even some of these works were widely known early in the audience by lithographs and other reproductions.
In his paintings, the artist's interest focuses on the clothing of the people and setting up the scene around them. However, this theatricality of his work has resulted in difficulty to distinguish a sense of the persons portrayed. The critics loidoroyn even that he approaches his subjects to look at as stranger, but - no doubt - the Vryzakis is one of the main founders of modern (post-Byzantine) Greek painting.
