Background
Konstantinos Maleas was born in 1879 in Istanbul, far away from the Greek artistic centre in Athens.
He studied at the Phanar Greek Orthodox College.
Κωνσταντίνος Μαλέας
Konstantinos Maleas was born in 1879 in Istanbul, far away from the Greek artistic centre in Athens.
He studied at the Phanar Greek Orthodox College and then left for Paris in 1901 at an age of 23 years to study initially architecture. In Paris he eventually decided to study painting until 1908 with Henri Martin.
In 1913 he returned to Greece, initially in Thessaloniki and then based in Athens.
He travelled extensively in Greece, Western Europe, Palestine and Egypt where he drew some of the subjects for his famous landscapes.
Apart from painting, he was also involved in public discussion of the modernisation of the Greek language. He was a friend of Glenos, Delmouzos and Triantafylidis.
He illustrated the first alphabet book in the new modern Greek language Demotiki (Αλφαβητάρι με τον ήλιο), and wrote articles for newspapers such as Nouma, Elefthero Vima , as well as writing for a number of art journals.
Maleas work was influenced by the work of Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, and by the art movements of symbolism, impressionism and fauvism. His paintings are characterised by very light and bright colours, the large brushes that revolutionalised the stagnant Athenian art of the time.
Most art critics condemned his work , and it was only Fotos Politis that recognised the value of Maleas's work, also urging young artists to learn from his paintings.
He died in 1928.
Penteli Landscape
Trees at Cairo
Delphi
View of Aitoliko
Landscape
Castle at Monemvasia
The Church of Ayia Aikaterini, Thessaloniki
Still Life
Pines at Rafina
Olive trees
Three Egyptian Women
Church at Santorini
Columns
The anchorage of the Idea
The Church of the Pantanassa, Naxos
Egyptian Landscape
Thermos, Aitoloakarnania
Landscape with tree and mosque in the background
Nile Landscape
Chapel with tree
Landscape (sketch)
View of Acropolis
Walls of Monemvasia
View of Kalavryta
Santorini
Black Man
Methana
The Old Well
Attica Landscape
Aswan of the Nile
Olympia
Landscape of Aswan on the Nile
Landscape - Messolonghi Lagoon
House at Santorini
Lavrio Landscape
Santorini
Landscape of Attica
House at Lesvos
Landscape with cypresses
Landscape
Cypress
Turkish Harbour
Church with Cypress
In 1917 he became founding member of the avant-garde art group Ομάδα Τέχνη, which imported the international contemporary art movements of the time to Greece.
In 1913 Maleas married Efrosinje Dzorbadzoglu.