Background
Georgios Jakobides was born on January 11, 1853, in the island of Lesbos in the then Ottoman Empire. At the age of 13, he traveled to Smyrna to live with his uncle.
Georgios Jakobides was born on January 11, 1853, in the island of Lesbos in the then Ottoman Empire. At the age of 13, he traveled to Smyrna to live with his uncle.
From 1870 to 1876, Jakobides studied sculpture and painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts, and in 1877 he went to the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich on a scholarship to continue his painting studies under Karl Theodor von Piloty.
In Munich Georgios founded his own art school for girls. 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.
Georgios 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. He died in Athens in 1932.
At The Studio
Boy Smoking
Children's concert
Cold Shower
First Steps
Fragment from the "Children's Concert"
Girl Reading
Grandma's Favourite
Grassy Field
Peek-a-boo
Drawing for the short story "The Ugly Sister" by D. Vikelas
Platter with Seashells, Roses, Pearls and Earrings
Portrait of Young Girl
Potrait of Vassilakis Melas
Reversal of Roles
The Artist's Wife with Their Son
The Flower Seller
The Smoker
The Smoker
The Toilette
He was member of the German Museum of Nuremberg.