Pericles Pantazis was born in Athens in 1849 and began his artistic training in Paris under Antoine Chintreuil, Eugène Boudin and Gustave Courbet. In 1873, he settled in Brussels where he worked with Guillaume Vogels.

He founded Les Vingt (Group of Twenty) but died before their first exhibition. Les Vingt or Group de XX, was an association of twenty painters who organised exhibitions of avant-garde art. A number of the leading European artists who had difficulties exhibiting in Paris exhibited there including; Seurat, Renoir, Rodin, Monet. Its members included James Ensor, and the Neo Impressionist and Symbolists, including Theo Van Rysselberg, Georges Lemmen, Henry Van der Velde and A. W. Finch.

Pantazis’ talent had not yet reached its full potential and his premature death cut short a promising career. It also put an end to his influence on modern painting in Greece, where he had returned shortly before his death. He often painted open air scenes and showed particular talent in his rendering of the play of light and shadows, which were painted in light shades.