Here, we are standing in front of two portraits. Looking at the female figure first, we see the woman from her chest up, against a gray, neutral background. Her hair is thick and black and her skin somewhat dark. She is wearing a necklace of coloured beads and matching earrings, her gaze to the right. She is Despina, a familiar face from Tsarouchis’s circle of relatives and one of his favourite models, since she has sat for him more than a few times. Here, her look is intense and expressive, and her figure is depicted with great clarity. The sincerity of her face and the richness of her expression exude robustness and a stochastic mood.

Next to this work, we can see the portrait of the young Frenchman from Besançon, another favourite model of Tsarouchis. He is Dominic, who used to sit for the painter often, during the latter’s Parisian period. The background is dark and blurred with the young man’s hair. Here, with his head slightly tilted, Dominic has his eyes turned to us. His look is indolent and seductive and his expression exudes melancholy. Tsarouchis had said that he picked out Dominic for being a folksy boy, with a talent for painting, poetry and music, who dressed up in second-hand clothes, just like many young Frenchmen of the time. Moreover, the painter was generally interested in themes involving young men with long hair, reminiscent of ancient and mythological figures of unparalleled beauty.

Common to both portraitures is the realism of their representation and also the fact that both had been used again in the well-known theme by Tsarouchis with the 4 seasons, as well as in historical or mythological themes. Moreover, they also resonate, in terms of colour perception, with the famous fayum portraits from the late Hellenistic era.

Yannis Tsarouchis thought of himself as an explorer and a life-long student. His oeuvre is characterised by the constant presence of an open artistic dialogue between elements of the East and the West. More precisely, he wanted – and has found the way – to reconcile these two different orientations, as he wholeheartedly believed that Greek tradition embraces them both.