Georgios Jakobides was one of the chief representatives of the Munich School. His paintings have earned him the nickname “Painter of Childhood” because they depict scenes with children. He held a significant number of powerful positions in the academia, allowing him to influence and direct the art movement in Greece. He is considered one of the most important oil painters of modern Greece.
He was born in the island of Lesbos in the then Ottoman Empire. He studied sculpture and painting in Athens. One of his teachers there was Nicephorus Lytras.
Jakobides painted primarily sceneries from everyday life, which included children, flowers, nature and in-door places. He also painted portraits. Some of his most well-known paintings are The Naughty Grandson, Girl with Distaff and Spindle, The First Steps, The Flower Seller, Grandma’s Favourite, Children’s Concert, Cold Shower, Reversal of Roles, The Smoker, Granddaughter’s Combing and The Toilette. His paintings were characterized by realism expressed through movement, vivid colours and lighting.
He was the recipient of numerous achievement awards, namely the golden medal of Athens in 1888, the honour award from Bremen in 1890, the economian award of Trieste in 1895, the golden medal of Paris in 1900, the excellence award of Letters and Art in 1914 and many others. He became the first headmaster of the National Art Gallery of Athens in 1900 and was a professor of fine arts in the University of Athens. With the foundation of the Academy of Athens in 1926, he was chosen as one of its initial 38 members. Jakobides was one of the few wealthy painters in Greece as well as the most beloved painter of the royal family as shown by several of his portraits of the Kings and Queens of Greece.
By the end of his life, he had painted almost 200 paintings. Today they are found in museums all around the world, primarily in Greece and America.
https://greatestgreeks.wordpress.com/2017/05/26/georgios-jakobides/
Modern Greek Art, modern impressionism, Greek painter
