Iakovos Rizos or Iacovos Rizos ( ), also known as Jacques Rizo, (c. 1849 – 1926) was a Greek painter who worked primarily in Paris.

Biography

Rizos was born in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

; he was the grandson of Iakovos Rizos Neroulos and his brother was a civil engineer.Clovis Lamarre and Marquis de Queux de St.-Hilaire, ''La Grèce et l'Exposition de 1878'', Pays étrangers et l'Exposition de 1878, Paris: Delagrave, 1878,
pp. 153–54
. He went to Paris as a young man, studied with

Alexandre Cabanel Alexandre Cabanel (; 28 September 1823 – 23 January 1889) was a French Painting, painter. He painted historical, classical and religious subjects in the Academic art, academic style. He was also well known as a portrait painter. He was Napoleon ...

at the École des Beaux Arts, and spent his career there. He died there in 1926.Andreas Spyridōnos Iōannou, tr. D. Dellagrammatika, ''Greek painting, 19th century'', Athens: Melissa, 1974, , p. 238. Rizos was a friend of Renoir and associated with the

Impressionists Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time), ordinary subjec ...

, and much admired

Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French people, French Impressionism, Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, Print ...

' work after he first moved to Paris, but his own style was academic.Ρίζος Ιάκωβος (1849 Αθήνα - 1926 Παρίσι)
,

National Gallery of Greece The National Gallery (, ''Ethniki Pinakothiki'') is an art museum located on Vasilissis Sofias avenue in the Pangrati district, Athens, Greece. It is devoted to Greek and European art from the 14th century to the 20th century. The newly renov ...

. Many of his paintings portray elegantly dressed women; he less often painted landscapes, in an Impressionist-influenced style. He exhibited a number of times at the

Paris salon The Salon (), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art event in the Western world. At the ...

s, beginning with a portrait of his sister, Mrs. Paparrigopoulos, which he re-worked for the 1878 Paris exposition. In 1875 his portrait of "Miss R." in a black silk dress with violet sleeves was noted by one critic as one of the finest portraits in the show. In 1877 his ''Indolence'', a nude, was praised by one critic except for the execution of the head, and by another praised for the colouration but faulted for the drawing, particularly of the hands and feet. Rizos' ''Athenian Evening'' or ''On the Terrace'' of 1897 won a silver medal at the

1900 Paris exposition The Exposition Universelle of 1900 (), better known in English as the 1900 Paris Exposition, was a world's fair held in Paris, France, from 14 April to 12 November 1900, to celebrate the achievements of the past century and to accelerate develop ...

and was praised at the 1899 art exhibition in Athens. It depicts an officer talking to two women on a terrace at sunset, with the

Acropolis An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens ...

in the background, in contrast to the more common depictions of Greece in 19th-century painting that focus on rural life. It is a noted example of the juxtaposition of sophisticated urban life with the country's past grandeur, which was a theme of Greek artists in the late 19th and 20th centuries. It and a number of his other paintings are in the Coutlides Collection at the

; there are also several in private collections in both Athens and Paris. At the 1897 salon, Albert-Gustave Belleroche exhibited a portrait of Rizo.''L'Illustration'' 109 (1897
307
.

Gallery

File:RIZOS2.jpg, ''Lady in the Garden with her Dog'' (1885–1890) File:RIZOS1.jpg, ''The Artist's Sister Reading'' (1885–1890) File:Γυναικείο γυμνό.jpg, ''Female Nude'', c. (1849–1926)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rizos, Iakovos 1840s births 1926 deaths Artists from Athens 19th-century Greek painters 20th-century Greek painters Greek emigrants to France Painters from Paris