ART ISLANDS:Hydra-Konstantinos Volonakis

Konstantinos Volonakis (17/3/1837-29/9/1907), who became known as the father of Greek seascape painting, is one of its most important representatives of Academic Realism or Munich School, the most important Art Movement of Greek art in the 19th Century. Konstantinos Volanakis bypassed the ethnographic themes and portraits that were the dominant tendency of the particular school, and reflected his deep love for the sea and ships.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: IAMY Archive

In the exhibition “Konstantinos Volonakis, the Father of Greek Seascape Painting” at the Historical Archives Museum Hydra (IAMY), are on show 29 paintings form the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation Collection. The sharpness, the changes in light, the varied and different rendering of the clouds, the elusive movement of the smoke are familiar features of his work. What primarily concerned Konstantinos Volonakis was the immensity of nature, the relation of the sea to the sky, and the life of his beloved ships, which are the identity of the painting world. His work is characterized by the sensation of motion, and immobility and the efficiency of the instant, and the elusive. Volonakis was born on the island of Crete in 1837, later, the family moved again for business reasons, and he completed his basic education on Syros in 1856. Afterward he went to Trieste and became an accountant for a family of Greek merchants who were related to his family by marriage. While there, he made sketches of ships and harbors in his account books. The family recognized his artistic talent, and made arrangements for him to study at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, under Karl von Piloty, joining a group of Greek students that included Nikolaos Gyzis, Georgios Jakobides, Nikiphoros Lytras and Polychronis Lembesis. His break came in 1869, three years after the Battle of Lissa, when Emperor Franz Joseph held a drawing competition to memorialize the event. Volanakis’ work “The battle of Lissa” won the contest, receiving 1000 gold Florins and free travel cruises with the Austrian navy for three years. He took full advantage of this, producing numerous canvases and sketches. In 1877 he exhibited “The battle of Trafalgar” in London; the work was bought by the British Naval Ministry. In 1883, despite warnings from Νικολαος Gyzis that it would ruin his career and the prices for paintings in Greece were very low, he returned to Greece and settled in Piraeus, where his family had a pottery factory, citing pressure from his wife, whose health was suffering from the cold winters in Germany. The same year presents in the Greek Palace his famous work “The Battle of Salamis”, and is appointed professor at the School of Fine Arts in Athens, where one of his best-known students was Michalis Oikonomou. He also operated his own private school in Piraeus. In 1889, he was awarded the Silver Cross of the Order of the Redeemer. The financial difficulties, the tight environment in Greece at the time, where artists were still few and the prices of works low, will affect the quality of life of Volanakis and his extended family, leading the prudent artist to attempt suicide. In an effort to increase his income, he reversed the usual method of painting first, then framing, by working with a group of framers who would make luxurious carved frames first, then creating paintings to fit them. His funeral was on an important election day, so very few people attended. Most of his works are in Private Collections. In 2008, his painting “The Arrival of Karaiskakis in Faliro” was sold at auction by Sotheby’s for € 1,970,000, a record price for a Greek artist’s work.

Info: Historical Archives Museum Hydra (IAMY), Hydra, Duration: 10/8-31/10/19, Days & Hours: Daily 9:00-26:00 & 19:30-21:30, www.iamy.gr