After the founding of the modern Greek state, Greek and foreign artists taught at the Athens School of Fine Arts. Though they had a different education, close intellectual bonds were eventually created with Munich, where the first Greek painters did their postgraduate work. They were occupied with a variety of subject matter, but genre scenes predominated embodying the pictorial expression of Greek life, illus-trating customs and local conditions. The principal representatives of this first generation were Theodoros Vryzakis, who turned toward historical painting inspired by the Greek War of Independence of 1821, Nikiphoros Lytras, who was primarily concerned with depicting life in his homeland, Nikolaos Gyzis who moved through a wide spectrum of expressive potentials, Georgios Iakovides who used childhood scenes as the main nucleus of his painting and Constantinos Volanakis who treated the Greek sea.

Nikolaos Gyzis (1842-1901)
The Children's Engagement