Konstantinos Volanakis

Konstantinos Volanakis (Greek Κωνσταντίνος Βολανάκης; born 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 grammar school on the island of Syros and from high school in 1856, he went in the same year, at the suggestion of his older brothers to Trieste, to work as an accountant for the large sugar group Afentoulis. The CEO Afentoulis cherished the artistic skills of the young Volanakis that he noticed through his numerous drawings of boats, ships and ports in the account books. Instead his dreamy accountant to dismiss Afentoulis decided at its own expense to finance Volanakis study painting. He sent Volanakis to Bavaria to the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. There he began in 1860 his studies 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 Athenian Academy of Fine Arts first elementary drawing and painting later sculptures. Volanakis died in Piraeus in 1907.

The sea, the ships and ports were constant sources of inspiration for Volanakis ' art. Together with Theodoros Vryzakis, Nikiforos Lytras, Nicholas Gysi and Georgios Iakovidis he is considered one of the most important representatives of the academic realism of the so-called Munich school. Nevertheless, to show some of his works, such as the well-known festival in Munich, slight impressionistic tendencies. His Navy images adorn some of the most important halls in Austria and Greece, and other works of the artist achieved at international auctions high prices.