george von peschke collection

COLLECTION OVERVIEW

Collection Number: GR ASCSA GVP 056
Name(s) of Creator(s): Georg Vinko von Peschke (1900–1959)
Title: George von Peschke Collection
Date [bulk]: 1920-1960
Date [inclusive]:
Language(s): English
Quantity: 0.50 linear meters
Summary: The collection consists of 40 works of art by George von Peschke, of which 19 are shadow profiles of well-known figures of the ASCSA; the rest are oils, watercolors, and engravings; and 16 photographs of Peschke, his wife Faltaina and various ASCSA members which were added to the collection in 2013. Some paintings are framed, decorating the Blegen and Gennadius Libraries, the Archives, Loring Hall, and the Director’s House. Peschke, an artist and staff member of the American School’s excavations, signed his paintings in Greek. Peschke’s archaeological drawings are held at the Drawing Archives of the Corinth Excavations.
Immediate Source of Acquisition: Marianna Peschke Monaco, 2013 (photos); and purchase in 2017.
Information about Access: The collection is available for research.
Cite As: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Archives, George von Peschke Collection (Αμερικανική Σχολή Κλασικών Σπουδών στην Αθήνα, Τμήμα Αρχείων, Συλλογή George von Peschke)
Note 1: The conservation of the shadow profiles in 2017 was supported by Jack L. Davis and Sharon L. Stocker, and it was based on condition reports produced in 2015 with funding from the Fowler Merle-Smith Fund.
Note 2: The oil of the Skyrian woman was conserved in 2017.

For more information, please contact the Archives:
The American School of Classical Studies at Athens
54 Souidias Street, Athens 106 76, Greece
phone: 213 000 2400 (ext. 425)
Contact via E-mail

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Georg Vinko von Peschke (1900–1959), an Austro-Hungarian who was raised between Croatia and Vienna, came to Greece in 1925 to pursue his art and was hired by R. Carpenter in 1931 to document ASCSA’s excavations in Corinth, Isthmia, and Olynthos. His affiliation to the Corinth Excavations lasted for almost 30 years (1931–1959). Peschke, a celebrated artist in the 1930s, “brought archaeological practices into a direct conversation with modernist poetics” [Kourelis 2017]. He married Faltaina Kalimeri, whose family came from the island of Skyros, a prominent source of inspiration for his drawings.

See, Kourelis, K. 2017. “Flights of Archaeology: Peschke's Acrocorinth,” Hesperia 86:4, pp. 723-782; and N. Vogeikoff-Brogan, "Skyromania: American Archaeologists in 1930s Skyros, From the Archivist's Notebook, June 1, 2016.