The Sketchbooks of Andreas Vourloumis at the Gennadius Library Archives
Ten years younger than George Seferis and one year older than Odysseus Elytis, painter Andreas Vourloumis (1910-1999) belongs to the so-called “30s Generation” of literary Greece.  Of subtle and gentle character, son of a well-to-do Athenian family, Vourloumis did not share the forced uprooting, the nostalgia for the lost fatherland, and the quest for “Greekness” that was typical of most members of this generation (e.g., Stratis Myrivilis, Elias Venezis, George Seferis, George Theotokas, and Stratis Doukas). Although he studied chemistry, he spent most of his life exercising his talent by drawing portraits of important Athenians of his time, or by painting Byzantine icons and illustrating Byzantine churches. He admired, and was for a time the pupil of one of the most venerated icon-painters and literary figures of his generation: Photis Kontoglou. In fact, Vourloumis published his discourses with Kontoglou in 1995. One of the turning points in Vourloumis’ painting career came in 1940 when he was sent, as was Odysseus Elytis, to fight on the Albanian front. Elytis would write one of his most famous poems “A Heroic and Elegiac Song of the Lost Second Lieutenant of the Albanian Campaign,” and Andreas Vourloumis would fill his pocket notebooks with pen/pencil drawings and watercolors inspired by his fellow soldiers, the places he lived, and the Epirote landscapes he saw. A considerable part of the collection was published recently (Ανδρέας Βουρλούμης, Μπλοκ Εκστρατείας. Ζωγραφική Περιήγηση στο Αλβανικό Μέτωπο, Αθήνα 2000). The Gennadius Library is grateful to Panagis, Eleni and Irini Vourloumi for their gift.