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Dimensions: 46.5 by 38cm., 18 1/4 by 15in.

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Provenance: Acquired from the artist by the father of the present owner; thence by descent

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Exhibited: Athens, National Gallery and Alexandros Soutzos Museum, Nikos Engonopoulos, 1983, no. 27 (as Solomos)

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Notes: A student of Parthenis (see lots 8 & 21) at the School of Fine Art in Athens, Engonopoulos is considered the founder of surrealism in Greek art. Known for his erotic depictions of nude or partialy dressed male and female figures he incorporates elements of mythology, history and antiquity within a contemporary idiom.

Dionysios Solomos is considered one of the most important Greek writers of the nineteenth century. The author of the Hymn to Liberty in 1823 he also stood foremost in the uprising of his time to win independence for Greece aginst Ottoman rule.

A line from Solomos' poem The Free Besieged is inscribed on a scroll in the lower right of the present composition. Written in non-rhyming fifteen-syllable verse the poem highlights the spirit that remained free within the Greek soul during a time of oppression.