The Harbour of Kavala

Kavala changed hands twice in eight months. It was Ottoman until the autumn of 1912, then held through the winter by the Bulgarian army, then taken by the Greek navy at the end of June 1913, on the 26th by the calendar Greece still kept. The gulf had been mined, so the first destroyer in was steered by local fishermen who had watched where the mines went down. The garrison had already pulled out. A landing party came ashore the next day and raised the flag over the administration building.

Beside the museum's title, the painting carries an older, plainer description in the records, the landing of Greek troops at Kavala. A warship lies off the town, rowing boats crowded with people and small flags pull out towards it, and the houses run along the headland under the old fortress. The whole thing is 25 by 45 centimetres. Kavala's future was still open that week, and the treaty signed in Bucharest a few weeks later assigned the town to Greece.