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Gysis [Gyzes], Nikolaos [Nicolas]
(b Tinos, 1 March 1842; d Munich, 4 Jan 1901). Greek painter, active in Germany. He studied at the School of Arts in Athens (1853–64) and at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich (1865–71), where he later became a professor (1882). Despite his great love for Greece and his desire to return there, he lived and worked in Munich, perhaps fearing that he might not find the same suitable conditions in Greece as in the Bavarian capital. He attracted many of the young Greek artists who went to study in Munich. Gysis worked on almost all types of subjects, and many of his paintings were inspired by Greek life. His primary failing was that he never really managed to free himself from the academicism of Munich, despite the revolutionary changes then taking place in art. Typical examples of this type of work are: the Secret School (1876), The Betrothal (1877; see GREECE, fig. 3) and The Ex-voto (1886; all Athens, N.G.). Also of interest are his portraits, especially the Artist’s Wife, the Artist’s Son and the Artist’s Daughter (all Athens, E. Koutlides priv. col., on loan to Athens, N.G.). Influenced by the prevailing fin de siècle mood, for about the last 20 years of his life Gysis turned to both mythological and religious allegorical subjects with an intense mystical and Symbolist flavour. Representative works of this period are: Art and its Geniuses (c. 1876), Eros and Psyche (both Athens, E. Koutlides priv. col., on loan to Athens, N.G.), Spring Symphony (1886) and ‘Behold the Bridegroom Cometh ...’ (c. 1895; both Athens, N.G.).
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