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The Greek House: The Story of a Painter's Love Affair with the Island of Sifnos by Christian Brechneff (Paperback, 2015)

When Christian Brechneff first set foot on the Greek island of Sifs, it was the spring of 1972 and he was a twenty-one-year-old painter searching for artistic inspiration and a quiet place to work. There, this Swiss child of Russian emigres, adrift and confused about his sexuality, found something extraordinary. In Sifs, he found a muse, a subject he was to paint for years, and a sanctuary. In The Greek House, Brechneff tells a funny, touching narrative about his relationship to Sifs, writing with warmth about its unforgettable residents and the house he bought in a hilltop farm village. This is the story of how he fell in love with Sifs, and how it became a haven from the complexities of his life in Western Europe and New York. It is the story of his village and of the island during the thirty-odd years he owned the house-from a time when there were barely any roads to the arrival of the modern world with its tourists and high-speed boats and the euro. And it is the story of the end of the love affair-how the island changed and he changed, how he discovered he had outgrown Sifs, or couldn't grow there anymore. The Greek House is a celebration of place and an honest narrative of self-discovery. In its pages, a naive and inexperienced young man comes into his own. Weaving himself into the life of the island, painting it year after year, he finds a place he can call home.

Place of Publication
NY
Spine
26mm
Content Note
27 Black-&-White Illustrations/Map
Author Biography
Born in the Belgian Congo in 1950, Christian Brechneff was educated in Switzerland and the United States (St. Olaf College). In 1975 he received his master of arts degree from the Royal College of Art in London. He has exhibited in Switzerland, Spain, England, Germany, Sri Lanka, and the United States, and his paintings appear in public and private collections all over the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Brechneff is also the author of Homage: Encounters with the East, a book of travel drawings published in 2007. He lives in Hadlyme, Connecticut.
Format
Paperback
Language
English
Author(s)
Christian Brechneff
Date of Publication
04/02/2015
Subject
Travel Writing
Imprint
Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc
Genre
Travel Writing
Country of Publication
United States

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