Dionysios Tsokos

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Dionysios Tsokos ( Greek Διονύσιος Τσόκος ; * 1814 in Zakynthos , † 1862 in Athens ) was an important Greek painter and one of the first Greek national painters after the Ottoman liberation.

Tsokos came from an Epirot family. He received painting lessons for the first time from Nikolaos Kantounis. In 1844 he went to Venice to improve his artistic skills. There he was a student of Ludovico Lipparini . He first painted portraits and later, at Lipparini's suggestion, also pictures with historical themes. In 1845 he took part in a public exhibition of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia in Venice with a portrait of a woman . His picture received good reviews and his name was first mentioned in an Italian newspaper.

In 1847 he returned to Greece and went to Athens. There he continued to deal with historical topics in his works. Works such as “Escape from Parga” (1849), “The Oath of the Members of the Philike Hetaireia” (1849), “The Murder of Kapodistrias ” (1850), etc. Between 1850 and 1860 he painted portraits of important Greek personalities and portraits of the Professors from the University of Athens . In 1856 he was appointed professor of painting. In the same year he impressed art critics with his portraits.

Dionysios Tsokos died in 1862 under unexplained circumstances. His works, especially themes from the Greek War of Liberation, portraits and hagiographies, combine elements of the academic painting of Italy at the time with elements of the painting school of the Ionian Islands . He is considered one of the pioneers of painting in the new Greece.

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