Oil on canvas, circa 1920s. 475x390 mm; 18 3/4x15 1/2 inches. Signed in oil, upper left recto.
Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas, also known as Nicolas or Niko Ghika (1906-1994), was born in Athens and studied painting in Greece and, in the early 1920s, in Paris. In 1923, he participated in the Salon des Indépendants, Paris, and the following year continued his studies in painting and engraving at the Académie Ranson, Paris. He had his first solo exhibition in 1927 at Galerie Percier, Paris, where Picasso praised his paintings. Ghika's style was significantly influenced by Cubism and early Greek art and its emphasis on geometric and interlocking/overlapping forms. He exhibited widely throughout Europe during the 1920s-50s, notably in Berlin where Ismar Littmann is considered would have seen his work. Ghika is considered among the most important modernist Greek painters.
