The section of the Museum collection, which consists of portraits of the protagonists of marine life, includes more works and artists.
One of the most important portraits, not only for its artistic value but also regarding the history of the museum itself is the portrait of Gerasimos Zochios by Spiros Porsalentis. Andreas Kriezis of Hydra gives an artistic representation of the protagonists of the naval operations of the War of Independence. An example is the portrait of Andreas Miaoulis who was painted as a member of the academia.
The protagonists of the naval operations of the first quarter of the 20th century have been magnificently presented by Konstantinos Iliadis. An example of his portraits shows Admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis. Another significant painter is Georgios Roilos who painted the portrait of Sofocles Dousmanis, Commanding Officer of the battleship “G. Averof”.
The contribution of the artist Yiannis Moralis to this collection of naval portraits strikes us as a surprise. The figure of Georgios Blessas, Commanding officer onboard the destroyer “Queen Olga” which was sunk by German aircrafts at Leros in 1943, sends out a unique sense of sensitivity, whereas the academic handling of the theme seems to back away under the penetrating gaze of the man in the picture. The artist created the portrait after the death of the commander whose family ordered his portrait.

Nevertheless the most impressive works of the fine art collection are the ones presenting the sea as the field of history and conflicts.
The painting “Setting on Fire the Turkish two-decker at Eressos in 1821” by Konstantinos Volanakis opens the section of the historical works combining a seascape with the representation of a historical event. The Naval Battle of Navarino, a work originally painted by Ambroise-Louis Garneray and copied by Konstantinos Volanakis (the original is kept in the Museum of the Versailles), is the second largest oil painting displayed in the hall of the Greek War of Independence. This is a work which once more proves the ability of the artist to assimilate different trends and render them in the best possible way.
Aimilios Prosalentis uses some isolated incidents of the war of 1897 that had a victorious outcome for Greeks as his direct source of inspiration. In his small size work The Capture of a Turkish Merchant Ship by the Steam “Pinios” and the torpedo boat “11”, the transparent brush stroke of his impressionist palette seems to prevail.
The historical naval battles of the Balkan Wars are often painted by artists such as Vasilios Chatzis and Thalia Flora Karavia, who go on board the war ships and watch closely the operations of the Greek Navy. The Battle of Elli painted in 1912 by Vasilios Chatzis treats the theme with a simple composition and a single colour to render the war ships whose threatening size conveys a gloomy atmosphere. The painting titled Transporting the body of King George I on the royal yacht “Amfitriti” is impressive with its realistic and detailed rendering of the ship.The smoke coming from the escort ships of “Amfitriti”, makes this tragic scene even more intense., Another one of the collection’s large paintings, The Battle of Limnos, was painted by Loukas Geralis and sketched by Vasilios Chatzis and it is of a totally different style. The thick strokes used for rendering the sea along with the vivid colors create a naïve impression.
Likourgos Kogevinas also attended the war operations of the period 1914-1918 as an artist-correspondent. In his work, The Battleship “Averof” in Constantinople, he transforms the Greek Great Idea into a painting.
Snapshots from the operations of the Greek Navy during the two World Wars were also recorded by the palette of V. Germenis, who renders with sheer realism the Actions of Destroyer “Queen Olga” in the Mediterranean. The sea is depicted merely as a field of naval conflicts whereas it is combined with several depictions of the fleet’s activities.

Furthermore, quite a few of the collection’s paintings treat the theme of ships, namely, they are “ship portraits”.
Ancient ships became a challenge for Nikolaos Kalogeropoulos. An archaeologist and artist who had studied ancient navigation Nikolaos Kalogeropoulos, rendered in a clear manner the ancient Greek trireme and the Byzantine dromon.
Greek boat-owners of the War of Independence of 1821 were proud of their ships and often ordered the ship’s portrait from painters. Those art works used to decorate the cabins of the ships as well as their houses. An important collection (especially with regard to the Museum’s history) presenting the ships of the island of Hydra which participated in the Greek Revolution consists of the watercolour paintings from the donation of Konstantinos Kiriazis. It is a series of works by the amateur painter Antonios Kriezis. Most of them were copies of paintings created by the Roux family, a French family of seascape painters.
Among the more recent works dealing with portraits of war ships, one finds the Destroyer “Thyella” by Vasilios Chatzis. This painting shows clearly the artist’s personal intention, contrary to the Greek Fleet on a Night Patrol where the use of light alludes to paintings by K.Volanakis.

An important part of the museum’s fine art collection is the five works by Aristeidis Glykas. These are “Hellespont” (1923) ,“Afovos” (1929), “S.S. Santorini” (1934), “S.S. Kyra Panagia II” (1936) and the “Yacht Hellas” (1936). Born in Patos of Vrodado in Chios in 1870, the folk ship painter Aristeidis Glykas, who was a sailor himself, moulded by the sea salt, depicts in his works the awesome beauty of the first Greek steam ships. The ships’ characteristics are rendered in detail and surrounded by a poetic atmosphere. They allude to the atmosphere of the totally different compositions by Theofilos who used to transform everyday life into poetry.