Vespers

When Ralli died in 1909, his will handed the National Gallery of Athens everything with a Greek subject that was still standing in his Paris studio. The gallery accepted the bequest in 1910, when it had hardly begun collecting, and this small panel came in with it.

The subject is the evening service of the Orthodox church, sung as the daylight goes. Church interiors occupied him for most of his working life, and the gallery puts no date on this one, so it floats somewhere inside a career of more than 30 years.

It is painted on wood rather than canvas and measures 35 by 27 centimetres, roughly a sheet of writing paper. The Greek title names the service itself and not the room it happens in.