Page 395 - Beholding Liberty!

HALL OF THE ADJUTANTS
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Karl Krazeisen (1794-1878)
Portrait of Georgios Kountouriotis, 1828
lithograph, 50 × 40 cm
signed: Hanfstaengl ft. (on image, bottom right) Nach der Natur dex. von Kraxeisen. (bottom left) Gedr. v. Selb. (bottom right)
inscribed: G. CONDURIOTTIS. (low centre)
Hellenic Parliament Art Collection, inv. n. 893
IN 1826 KARL KRAZEISEN, a Bavarian infantry officer, holding the rank of lieutenant at the time, came to Greece, along with other philhel- lenes, to join the fight for independence. In charge of this Bavarian group was the experienced artil- lery colonel Karl Wilhelm von Heidek. Being ama- teur painters, these two officers depicted scenes and figures of the Greek Revolution.
Between November 1826 and August 1827, Kra- zeisen focused on producing portraits (from life) of major figures of the armed struggle. He made drawings in black pencil on small sheets of paper – now in the National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum in Athens – usually indicating the place and date; he asked each sitter to sign their portrait, thus certifying their authenticity.
As early as 1827, after producing a series of por- traits in Attica camps, the Argolis and the Saron- ic Gulf, he returned to Munich and proceeded to have his drawings lithographed. The totality of Krazeisen’s images were published in the album Bildnisse ausgezeichneter Griechen und Philhellenen,
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nebst einigen Ansichten und Trachten (Portraits of the most famous Greeks and Philhellenes, along with some Views and Costumes). They were print- ed in Munich by Franz Seraph Hanfstaengl (1804- 1877) between 1828 and 1831, in seven issues of four lithographs each.
The 20 lithographed portraits released in Kra- zeisen’s album disseminated broadly the images of many important Greek fighters.
In addition to their indisputable value as historical documents, they are also of considerable artistic merit, conveying the individual personality traits of these heroes. Absent from the Krazeisen se- ries are, of course, major fighters who had already died in action, such as Athanasios Diakos, Markos Botsaris and Papaflessas. In any event, Krazeisen’s lithographed portraits established a representative and archetypal visual pantheon of the Greek War of Independence.
This engraving depicts Georgios Kountouriotis, in a three-quarter pose, in the costume of the islands, painted by Krazeisen on Poros in 1827.
Letter of G. Kountouriotis to the Legislative, in which he expresses his appreciation for his election as president of the Executive (Hydra, 24 December 1823)
Archives of the Greek Regeneration, vol. 12, no 223 [p. 237] Library of the Hellenic Parliament
GEORGIOS KOUNTOURIOTIS, recog- nizing how important the «presidential profession» is, in an attempt to gain captatio benevolentiae, considers himself neither worthy nor capable of it. However, as he notes, in order not to give the
impression of being disobedient and defiant, he ac- cepted the office in spite of his will, he is grateful to the body for this highest of honours and apologizes for the delay in attending, explaining that he had to arrange domestic affairs.
HEROON OF THE STUGGLE The Heroes of the sword 395