Georgios Jakobides | |
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Georgios Jakobides
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Born |
Georgios Jakobides 11 January 1853 Lesbos, Ottoman Empire |
Died | 13 December 1932 Athens, Greece |
(aged 79)
Nationality | Greek |
Known for | Painting and sculpture |
Notable work |
The Children's Recital (Παιδική Συναυλία) (1894) Spring (Η Άνοιξις) (1927) The First Steps (Τα Πρώτα Βήματα) The Wife and Son of the Artist (Η Σύζυγος και ο γιος του ζωγράφου) (1898) |
Movement | Naturalism |
Georgios Jakobides (Γεώργιος Ιακωβίδης; 11 January 1853 – 13 December 1932) was a painter and one of the main representatives of the Greek artistic movement of the Munich School. He founded and was the first curator of the National Gallery of Greece in Athens.
He was born in Lesbos, Ottoman Empire. His first education was in Smyrna. From 1870 to 1876, Jakobides studied sculpture and painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts, and in 1877 he went to the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich on a scholarship to continue his painting studies under Karl Theodor von Piloty.
In Munich, he lived for 17 years where he worked in his studio, painting mythological scenes, genre pictures, and portraits. His work is influenced by German academic Realism. Hs most famous paintings were of children. In the capital of Bavaria he was regarded as a successful German artist selling many of his works at high prices. The Greek government invited him in 1900 to return to Athens to organize the National Gallery of Athens, and in 1904 he was appointed Director of the Athens School of Fine Arts, where he taught for 25 years. At this time, additional to his themes he produced formal portraits of eminent Greeks (e.g., Queen Sophia). He opposed all new artistic tendencies, including Impressionism and Expressionism, but supported younger artists to follow their own individual artistic tendencies.