The Petanque Player, Ca 1920: Avant Garde Cubist Deux Crayon Master Drawing by Demetrios Galanis, Prestigious Provenance, Drawing on Paper

This compelling Petanque player is a work by Demetrios Galanis (1879–1966), a key figure in European Modernism and one of the most important Greek artists of the School of Paris. His artistic career marked a remarkable evolution from a sharp-witted satirical cartoonist to a prestigious Academician and professor at the École des Beaux-Arts.

Arriving in Paris in 1900, Galanis entered the legendary studio of Fernand Cormon—the teacher of Van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec. He initially gained fame for his satirical illustrations in avant-garde journals. However, his true passion lay in the human form and the structural rigour of the classical tradition, influenced by his close friendships with Picasso, Matisse, and Braque.

In 1922, Galanis’s first major solo exhibition in Paris was introduced by the philosopher André Malraux, who famously remarked that Galanis’s work possessed "the power to stir emotions equivalent to that of Giotto". Throughout the 1920s, he exhibited alongside the greatest names of the century, including Derain, Chagall, and Dufy, cementing his place in the history of Modernism.

Our Petanque Player, dates from this very period. Executed with an economy of means, the drawing reveals Galanis’s engagement with Cubist principles—fragmented form, compressed space, and an emphasis on structure—while remaining grounded in the human figure. Executed in the "deux crayons" technique, the red chalk accents animate the charcoal modelling, lending warmth and rhythmic tension to the body. The result is an avant-garde sensibility that balances analytical construction with physical presence.

The work has prestigious provenance: it belonged to the legendary art collector Alfred Richet (1893-1992). Richet's art collecting had commenced modestly in 1913 with a watercolor by Paul Signac, followed by drawings of Albert Marquet, as well as wartime acquisitions of minor paintings by Moïse Kisling, Maurice de Vlaminck, André Derain, and Raoul Dufy.

He soon became a repeat customer at the Parisian dealers Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, Léonce Rosenberg and Leopold Zborowski. Richet also established lasting friendships with the artists whose art he championed and collected, including Picasso and Georges Braque. (Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art).

The discerning eye of collectors like Richet helped solidify Galanis’s reputation during his lifetime, paving the way for his eventual canonisation in the world's most significant public collections.

Today, works by Galanis are held in prestigious international institutions, including the Tate Gallery London, the Pompidou Centre Paris, the National Gallery of Greece in Athens and

the Teloglion Foundation in Thessaloniki.

Our Petanque player is signed at the lower right and measures 63 x 47 cm. The overall size in its original leaf gold frame is 68 x 51 cm.

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