Theophilos Hatzimihail
Encyclopedia
Mytilene
Mytilene is a town and a former municipality on the island of Lesbos, North Aegean, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Lesbos, of which it is a municipal unit. It is the capital of the island of Lesbos. Mytilene, whose name is pre-Greek, is built on the...
, island of Lesbos, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
– Vareia, 22 March, 1934), known simply as Theophilos, was a major folk painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
of Neo-Hellenic art. The main subject of his works are Greek characters and the illustration of Greek traditional folklife and history.
Biography
The exact birthdate of Theophilos is unknown. However, it is believed that he was born between 1867 and 1870 in Vareia (Βαρειά), a village outside of MytileneMytilene
Mytilene is a town and a former municipality on the island of Lesbos, North Aegean, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Lesbos, of which it is a municipal unit. It is the capital of the island of Lesbos. Mytilene, whose name is pre-Greek, is built on the...
(then part of the Ottoman Empire). His father, Gabriil Kefalas, was a shoemaker, while his mother Pinelopi Hatzimihail was a daughter of an iconographer. When he was very young he was mediocre at school, but he had a special interest in painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, having learned the basics from his grandfather.
His life was very hard in part because people made fun of him, since he went around wearing the traditional Greek kilt, the fustanella
Fustanella
Fustanella is a traditional skirt-like garment worn by men of many nations in the Balkans, similar to the kilt. In modern times, the fustanella is part of Balkan folk dresses...
. At the age of 18 he abandoned his home and family and worked as a gate-keeper (καβάσης, kavasis) at the Greek consulate in Smyrna
Smyrna
Smyrna was an ancient city located at a central and strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Thanks to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to prominence. The ancient city is located at two sites within modern İzmir, Turkey...
.
There he stayed a few years, before he settled in the city of Volos
Volos
Volos is a coastal port city in Thessaly situated midway on the Greek mainland, about 326 km north of Athens and 215 km south of Thessaloniki...
in about 1897, searching for occasional work and painting in houses and shops of the area. Many of his murals exist today. Most of his years he spent in Pelion
Pelion
Pelion or Pelium is a mountain at the southeastern part of Thessaly in central Greece, forming a hook-like peninsula between the Pagasetic Gulf and the Aegean Sea...
. His protector during that period was the landholder Giannis Kontos, for whom he did many works. Today the house of Kontos is the Theophilos Museum. As well as painting, he was also involved in organizing popular theatrical acts for national ceremonies, and in the carnival period he had a major role, sometimes dressing as Alexander the Great, with pupils in macedonian phalanx
Macedonian phalanx
The Macedonian phalanx is an infantry formation developed by Philip II and used by his son Alexander the Great to conquer the Persian Empire and other armies...
formation, and sometimes as a hero of the Greek Revolution, with gear and costumes made by himself.
In 1927 he returned to Mytilene
Mytilene
Mytilene is a town and a former municipality on the island of Lesbos, North Aegean, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Lesbos, of which it is a municipal unit. It is the capital of the island of Lesbos. Mytilene, whose name is pre-Greek, is built on the...
. Legend states that he left Volos
Volos
Volos is a coastal port city in Thessaly situated midway on the Greek mainland, about 326 km north of Athens and 215 km south of Thessaloniki...
because of an incident in a kafeneio (coffee shop), when someone played a joke on him in front of others and threw him down from a ladder where he was painting.
In Mytilene
Mytilene
Mytilene is a town and a former municipality on the island of Lesbos, North Aegean, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Lesbos, of which it is a municipal unit. It is the capital of the island of Lesbos. Mytilene, whose name is pre-Greek, is built on the...
, despite the mockery of the people, he continued to draw, painting many murals in villages for little payment, usually for a plate of food and a cup of wine. Many of his works of this period have been lost, either due to natural aging or from damage by the owners.
In Mytilene, the renowned art critic and publisher Stratis Eletheriadis (Tériade
Tériade
Tériade was a native of Mytilene who went to Paris in 1915 at the age of eighteen to study law, but who instead became an art critic, patron, and, most significantly, a publisher....
), who lived in Paris, discovered Theophilos and brought him a great deal of recognition and also international publicity, though posthumous. With Tériade's funding in 1964 the Museum of Theophilos was constructed in Vareia, Lesbos.
Theophilos died in March 1934, on the eve of the Annunciation, perhaps from food poisoning. One year later, his works were exhibited in the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
as a sample of a genuine folk painter of Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
.