Georgios Jakobides

Fleischer Collection, Germany (from a label on the reverse)
Purchased in the 1950s by the grandfather of the present owner; thence by descent

The founder and first curator of the National Gallery of Greece in Athens, and Director of the Athens School of Fine Arts, Georgios Jakobides was a seminal figure in the development of an academic Greek aesthetic as well as a doyen of the Greek fine arts. An influential member of the Munich School, Jakobides commenced his artistic studies at the Athens School of Fine Arts under Nikiforos Lytras. Awarded a scholarship in 1878 he moved to Munich to attend the Academy of Fine Arts under Theodor von Piloty and Ludwig Löfftz, who had also taught Lytras, Gysis and Volanakis. Jakobides had originally begun his studies in Athens as a sculptor, which would positively affect the modelling and effect of light of the affectionately-rendered figures in his paintings, as evident in the present work.