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000014 Yannis Mitarakis, Fishing boats in the Dockyard, 1948, oil on canvas, 62.5 × 75.5 cm

The subject of boats and shipyards remained popular throughout 19th-century art. In Greece especially, Konstantinos Volanakis and Vasileios Chatzis produced some particularly charming paintings featuring shipyards and small boats. The theme continued to attract artists later on, particularly during the interwar years. Painters such as Mikis Matsakis and Giorgos Velissaridis, among others, often depicted similar scenes during travels to areas with strong maritime traditions.

Mitarakis exhibited the painting Boats of Skiathos in the 1st Panhellenic Art Exhibition at the Zappeion in 1938 (the painting is now part of the Ministry of Education’s collection). A similar spirit is found in the work Boats in the Shipyard, as the title indicates, dated 1948. The painting depicts a shipbuilding and repair facility—a traditional shipyard. The entire foreground is occupied by small and larger boats, with the bulk of a red boat under construction dominating the left side. A few figures work in the foreground, surrounded by planks and boat skeletons, while the sea is barely visible on the right. In the background, a thin strip of land (possibly Chios?) and the blue sky enhance the idyllic image of a pre-industrial era—the idea of technical knowledge gradually disappearing as shipbuilding methods evolved. This painting belongs to Mitarakis’ mature phase, combining a realistic approach with a tendency toward abstract forms, marking the starting point of his postwar artistic explorations.