Meeting Point 10: Municipal Gallery of Larissa-G.I. Katsigras Museum

Konstantinos Maleas, Lavrion, 1918-20
Oil on cardboard, 55 x 96 cm 
G. I. Katsigras Collection, Municipal Gallery of Larissa

Creative description

“Lavrion” is a painting by Konstantinos Maleas created between 1918 and 1920. It measures about half a metre in height and a metre in width, painted in oil on cardboard, depicting a natural landscape in Lavrion on a hot summer day.

In the centre of the composition lies a deep blue lagoon, surrounded by a mountain range in shades of purple, with hills on the right and left sides. A field of low, dry vegetation in yellow occupies nearly half of the picture from the centre down, rendered in relief with vertical lines. In the middle of the lagoon stand two tall pines with green foliage growing vertically in an oval shape. On the left, a triangular grey hill in relief is depicted, with a tree in front of it whose arched trunk bends sharply to the right into the ground, its green foliage merging into the shape of a low slope just behind it.

On the right side, the outline of a white hill is depicted in relief, while a green hill further down is rendered in uniform relief. The outlines of two low trees below are also depicted in relief. The water of the lagoon is rendered in fine undulating relief, and the mountain range at the highest and furthest point of the composition is rendered with diagonal outlines.

The forms in the artwork are simplified to convey a general sense of the landscape. Thick outlines define the shapes of the mountain ranges and trees throughout the composition. The artist employs an abundance of colours such as yellow, green, purple and light blue, contrasting with the intense blue of the lagoon and applied in broad brushstrokes across the artwork’s surface. The landscape of Lavrion spreads out clear, conveying the warmth of a summer day through the golden colour of the field and the absence of shadows, while evoking the sounds of cicadas and the scents of lavender, pine, thyme and oregano.

The creative description of the artwork “Lavrion” by Konstantinos Maleas is the result of co-creation by the participants in Meeting Point 10: Municipal Gallery of Larissa-G.I. Katsigras Museum.

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