The Arrival of Karaiskakis at Faliro, is the most important work by the artist to appear on the international art market. Most historical works by Volanakis of this scale and importance are in museums, institutions and corporate collections, making this painting one of the few examples still in private hands.
This monumental scene from the Greek War of Independence celebrates the arrival in 1827 of the fledgling Greek navy and one of its commanders, Georgios Karaiskakis, on the shores of Faliro, near Piraeus, in preparation for the campaign to liberate Athens, under siege from Ottoman forces. Altogether some ten thousand Greek soldiers convened at Piraeus. The fleet was made up of vessels assembled by various islands and forces under the command of Karaiskakis and the English philhellene, Lord Cochrane, the first ships landing in Piraeus on 5 February 1827. Karaiskakis was mortally wounded during the ensuing confrontation on the open plain...
February 8th, 2021
This tranquil landscape is unidentified but may be in Rhode Island where Edward Bannister had settled in 1870 with his wife, a Narragansett Indian from that state. Bannister himself was born in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, of a white Canadian mother and a black father from Barbados. Raised as a free black, he was orphaned around 1844–45 and spent several years at sea before moving to Boston in 1848 where he worked at a variety of jobs. He took classes in art at the Lowell Institute, where he studied anatomy with Dr. William Rimmer. Rimmer was a highly original artist, and one should assume some artistic influence on Bannister, though it is undocumented.
He briefly experimented with photography and painted some portraits, but Bannister’s interest settled on landscape painting. French Barbizon landscapes became his model, and it is probable that the source of this attraction was William Morris Hunt. As a student in France Hunt became a disciple of Jean...