Dimitrios Galanis was the first Greek to be accepted among the European avant-garde as an eminent artist. After completing his studies in Athens he left for Paris in 1900. The French capital became his permanent home although he travelled frequently to Greece. Between 1925 and 1930 he taught at the Académie Andre Lhôte and between 1944 and 1952 at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. In Paris he associated with such great figures as Matisse, Derain and Picasso. Even though he often exhibited with the Fauves and the Cubists, he never fully embraced either movement. Rather, he distilled elements from these pioneering movements into a highly personal idiom. The catalogue text for his first one-man exhibition in Paris in 1922 was written by André Malraux. In the early 1920s his art shifted towards more traditional forms, following the example of Derain who had already rejected Fauvism.

In this sweeping landscape, which is similar to his Landscape in Provence in the National Gallery in Athens (no. 8632), Galanis explores the nuances of muted earthy colours while fixing his attention on the structure and equilibrium of the composition. The horizontal arrangement of the various planes of the landscape imparts an overriding tranquility to the scene with the majesty of the vista and the mountains in the hazy distance.