Born into a large bohemian family, John Craxton (1922-2009) longed from a very young age to live and paint in Greece. He achieved his goal, and ever since, all of his works have the colors of an unbreakable joy.

He never took exams in his life, except to obtain a motorcycle driver's license. With a self-taught, anarchic spirit, he hated labels, especially those of the neo-romantic movement of the 1940s, of which he was considered a key figure. While his solitary, dark figures were self-portraits, he lived an extremely social life throughout World War II.

At 19, he met a wild kindred spirit named Lucian Freud, who followed him to Greece in 1946, only to return alone to England five months later. Craxton had already met, in London in 1945, the Greek painter Nikos Hatzikyriacos-Ghika, as well as the British writer Patrick Leigh Fermor. The three of them moved together, in life and art, for the next 50 years, in Hydra, Crete, Kardamyli, Corfu...

A modernist with a love for archaeology, Craxton was a distinct artist. His work, initially influenced by Blake and Palmer and later by Miró and Picasso, evolved into a dialogue with Byzantine mosaics, El Greco, and the Greek way of life.

Craxton loved the resilience of myth in the life of the Greek countryside. He had famous friends but painted everyday people. In the end, he resembled a shepherd from his chosen homeland, Crete. A naïve foreigner and a victim of a mischievous sense of humor, he found himself in unpleasant situations several times. Yet no matter what he endured, he never stopped facing everything with a heroic hedonism.

"No one knows Craxton like Ian Collins." TOM FLEMING, APOLLO MAGAZINE

"Life endowed John Craxton (1922-2009) with all its joys and graces. And he recognized this, loving Greece, and especially Crete, its landscapes, its light, its colors that flood his works. His story flows effortlessly in Ian Collins' book – the painter's confessions to him intertwine with the stories of so many of his friends. Adventures and incidents, images, sounds, and scents awaken memories and senses, drawing us into Craxton's world, into the world of a passionate traveler of life." EVITA ARAPOGLU

"This outstanding book is a feast for the eyes and mind, filled with Craxton's works in Greece, the country he loved more than any other place on earth." YSENDA MAXTONE GRAHAM, DAILY MAIL

"Craxton hated grandiose statements all his life, and Collins, with his concise yet suggestive prose, is his ideal biographer." JAMES CAHILL, TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT