Katerina Wilczynski (1894-1978) was born in Poland and worked in Germany. She worked as a painter, illustrator and etcher. While she produced portraits and cityscapes she mainly worked as a landscape artist.
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On the recto of this sheet Wilczynski has drawn archaeological ruins against the landscape of the Greek Island of Delos. The island is situated in an isolated position at the centre of a ring of islands called the Cyclades. It has long been a place of holy sanctuary and Greek Mythology made it the birth place of the Gods Apollo and Artemis. This drawing looks out across the backs of the sculptured lions from the ruins of the Lions Terrace to the distant mountains beyond. On the recto of the sheet the artist has represented the columns of a ruined building in Olympia. The site of the first Olympic games, which date back possibly further than 776 BC, Olympia was also a sacred sanctuary. This sanctuary, known as Atlis, consists of a number of unordered buildings including a Hipodrome and temples.
Although the exact location of the building represented on the recto of this sketch has not been identified, it is likely that it depicts one of those in the sacred sanctuary. On both the recto and verso drawings of this sheet Wilczynski has used thin brief pen strokes of India ink to convey fall of sun on these ruins in the hot climate of Greece.
