Background
Konstantinos Parthenis was born on March 10, 1878 to an Italian mother and a Greek father in Alexandria.
He studied from 1895 to 1903 at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna under Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach.
Κωνσταντίνος Παρθένης
Konstantinos Parthenis was born on March 10, 1878 to an Italian mother and a Greek father in Alexandria.
After a brief period of study in Italy, he studied from 1895 to 1903 at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna under Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach.
In 1903 he came to Greece for the first time and the same year took part in the International Exhibition of Athens, at which he received the silver medal.
Remaining in Greece for five years, he travelled to various parts of it, painting and producing icons for churches.
From 1909 to 1911/1914 he lived in Paris, where he took part in various Salons among which was the Autumn Salon of 1910 where his work Slope was awarded a prize. Returning to Greece he settled for a time in Corfu, took Greek citizenship.
In 1917 he came permanently to Athens and, along with other artists founded the Art Group.
In 1919 he was commissioned by the Attican League to do the painting in the church of Ayios Alexandros in Palaio Faliro. The next year he presented at Zappeion Hall a large retrospective exhibition, for which he was awarded the National Prize in Letters and Arts and thus established himself as an artist, but raising a storm of reaction in conservative academic circles.
In 1934 he took part in the Venice Biennale, in 1937 the International Exhibition of Paris where his work The Battle of Hercules with the Amazons won the gold medal, while in 1938 he organized a retrospective exhibition in the framework of the Venice Biennale, where his work Annunciation was purchased by the Museum of Venice.
In 1929, by a Presidential decree of Alexandros Papanastasiou, who was also his close friend, he was appointed a professor at the School of Fine Arts, after an unsuccessful attempt at being elected to it in 1923. This fact created a hostile atmosphere between him and his colleagues, but he was very popular among his students.
He taught at the School until 1947 when he quit. For a while he continued to teach at his studio but by 1948 he had withdrawn into himself and stopped having any real contact with the world. This had been preceded by his participation in the Panhellenio exhibition of that year where he exhibited the Apotheosis of Athanasios Diakos which received special praise and was recommended for the first prize and the gold medal. The fact that in the end it did not receive them coupled with his departure from the School and a long-term dispute with the Municipality of Athens over the commissioning of twelve paintings in 1940, which in the end were not delivered, exacerbated his isolation.
In 1966 his students organized at the Athenian Technological Institute an exhibition of his work from public and private collections, but he himself did not make an appearance.
Still Life
Landscape
Landscape
Battle of Heracles and the Amazons
Allegorical Composition
Landscape with Fir Trees
Hydra
Landscape with Cypresses and Pines on a Rocky Coast
Allegorical scene
Figure from Greek Antiquity (diptych)
Kesariani
The Riches of Communication
Still Life
Self-Portrait
Victory Triptych
Annunciation
Christ
The Resurrection
The Slope
Landscape
Portrait of Averoff
La temperanza, Woman Holding a Knife
Landscape
Portrait of Ioulia Partheni
Gazing at Peace
Landscape from Kavala
Virgin with Divine Infant - Crucifixion
Hymn to the Dawn
Music
Portrait of Aristovouli Lopresti
The Harbor of Kalamata
Still Life
Pine Trees on Kerkyra
Landscape
Landscape
Angel
The Little Church of Cephalonia
Still Life with Bottles
The Apotheosis of Athanasios Diakos
Kerkyra, The Old Fortress
Landscape
Large Nude
Landscape with Cypress Trees
Music (Painting and Decoration of a Piano),
The Night Responds to My Complaints
Bathers
Landscape with Three Figures
Still Life with Acropolis in the Background
St. Cecilia
Landscape
Agia Sofia
Head of Athena
Corfu Landscape
Landscape
Pink Figure (Wizard)
Portrait of Julia Parthenis
Pine Tree
The Virgin Mary
Portrait of P. Papathanasiou
Victory
Portrait of M. P Papathanasiou
He became a member of the literary and artistic group Company of Nine.