Memory of Albania, 1985

In Memory of Albania, which is a repetition of an earlier picture, the progress of a mounted soldier to the front in the Greek-Italian War of 1940 is depicted. Painted in 1985, it is rendered with greater freedom than the earlier work, as many features, such as the hands of the horseman, the blanket which he is holding, and the surrounding landscape are depicted by faint brush-strokes, without details, as if time had brought about a fading of the memory. As is often the case with Vourloumis's painting, the composition fills up the whole of the work, so that its impetus is towards the outer world, in a total identification of the soldier with the rugged environment, an identification which is also stressed by the use of drab colours in the same shades on the soldier, the horse, the ground, and the mountains.