Gyzis was born in the village of Sklavochori, on the island of
Tinos which has a long artistic history. As his family settled in Athens in 1850, he soon embarked on a study at the
Athens School of Fine Arts. His studies there formed the foundation of his artistic education and helped him to develop his natural skill in painting. In 1865, having won a scholarship, he went to continue his studies at the
Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, where he settled for the rest of his life. He was very soon incorporated into the
German pictorial climate, and became one of its most characteristic representatives of the Greek artistic movement of the
Munich School. This is expressed in the painting
News of Victory of 1871, which deals with the
Franco-Prussian War, and the painting
Apotheosis i Thriamvos tis Vavarias (Apotheosis or Triumph of Bavaria). From 1886 onward he was professor at the
Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, and gradually turned from the detailed realistic depictions towards compositions of a singularly impressionistic character. His students included
Jan Vochoc,
Ernst Oppler,
Fritz Osswald,
Anna May-Rychter,
Alfred Juergens and Stefan Popescu (Romanian painter). At the beginning of the 1870s returned to Greece for a period of several years, after which he produced a sequence paintings with more avowedly Greek themes, such as the
Carnival at Athens and the
Arravoniasmata (
Engagement Ceremony) and a little later the painting
After the Destruction of Psara. Towards the end of his life, in the 1890s, he took a turn toward more religious themes, with his best known work of the later period being Triumph of Religion. Gyzis died in
Munich. ==Legacy==