Konstantinos Volanakis
Konstantinos Volanakis ( Greek Κωνσταντίνος Βολανάκης ; * March 17, 1837 in Heraklion ; † 1907 in Piraeus ; also Constantinos Volanakis and Volonakis ) was one of the most important Greek painters of the 19th century.
Life
Volanakis' family came from a small town near Rethymno . After attending high school on the island of Syros and graduating from high school in 1856, he went to Trieste in the same year at the suggestion of his older brothers to work as an accountant for the large sugar company Afentoulis. The CEO Afentoulis valued the artistic abilities of the young Volanakis, which he noticed in the account books through his numerous drawings of boats, ships and ports. Instead of firing his dreamy accountant, Afentoulis decided to finance Volanakis to study painting at his own expense. He sent Volanakis to the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich in Bavaria . There he began his studies in 1860 as a student of Carl Theodor von Piloty .
After his studies he worked in Munich , Vienna and Trieste . In 1883 he returned to Greece and settled in Piraeus . From the same year until 1903 he taught at the Athens University of Fine Arts, initially elementary drawing and later sculpture painting. Volanakis died in Piraeus in 1907.
The sea, ships and ports were constant sources of inspiration for Volanakis' art. Together with Theodoros Vryzakis , Nikiforos Lytras , Nikolaus Gysis and Georgios Iakovidis , he is considered one of the most important representatives of the academic realism of the so-called Munich School . Nevertheless, some of his works, such as the well-known festival in Munich , show slight impressionistic tendencies. His naval paintings adorn some of the most important halls in Austria and Greece, while other works by the artist achieved high prices at international auctions.
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| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Volanakis, Konstantinos |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Volanakis, Constantinos; Volonakis, Constantinos; Βολανάκης, Κωνσταντίνος (Greek) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Greek painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 17, 1837 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Heraklion |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1907 |
| Place of death | Piraeus |