Early Greek portraits give us an image of the new urban class, in the process of development. Veterans of the War of Independence, islanders, and farmers were then being transformed into the bourgeoisie. They still retained their attire, customs and stern mien. Professional distinctions, elaborate costumes, and expensive jewellery were all used to depict the class, the role and the ideological image which the subject wished to promote. A more bourgeois character is to be found in the portraits by the Greek painters who had studied or lived in the large urban centres of Europe and addressed themselves to a more refined clientele (Aristeidis Oikonomou, Nikolaos Kounelakis).