Theophilos Hatzimihail

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Ο λαϊκός ζωγράφος Θεόφιλος Χατζημιχαήλ ντυμένος φουστανελάς. Φωτογραφία του τέλους του 19ου αι.

Theophilos Hatzimihail (Vareia Lesbos Greece, 1870; – Vareia Lesbos, 22 March; 1934), was known simply as Theophilos, was a major folkore painter of the neohellenic art. Main subject of his works is his Greek character and the illustration of the greek traditional folkore and history.

1 Biography
2 Bibliography
3 Movies
4 External links

[edit] Biography

The excact birthdate of Theophilos is unknown. However its believed that he was born between 1867–1870 in Vareia of Mytilene. His father, Gabriil Kefalas, was a shoemaker, while his mother Pinelopi Hatzimihail was a daughter of a hagiographer. When he was very young he was mediocre at school, but he had a special interest in painting, having learned the basics from his grandfather.

His life was very hard because of the people who laughed at him, because he went around with the traditional Greek dress foustanela. At the age of 18 he abandoned his home and family and worked as a gate-keeper ("kavasis") in the Greek consulate of Smyrni. There he stayed a few years, before he settled in the city of Volos about 1897, searching for occasional work and drawing in houses and shops of the area. Many paintings of his walldrawings exist today. Most of his years he spent in Pilio. His protector at that period was the landholder Giannis Kontos, for whom he did many works. Today the house of Kontos is a 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 dressed as Great Alexander, with pupils in an array macedonian phalanx, and sometimes as a hero of the Greek Revolution, with gear and costumes made by himself.

left|350px|thumb|Θεόφιλος Χατζημιχαήλ, Ο Κατσαντώνης στο ρέμα των 5 πηγαδιών (π. 1930). Ελαιογραφία σε μουσαμά, 69 εκ. x 113,5 εκ. Ιδιωτική συλλογή.

In 1927 he returned to Mytilene. It's believed that the cause he left from Volos, was an event in a kafeneio(greek coffee shop), when someone made a joke on him in front of others and thrown down Theopholos from a ladder where he was drawing.

Im Mytilene, despite the mickey and the badinage of the people, he continued to draw, painting many walldrawings in villages, for a poor payment, usually for a plate of food an a cup of wine. Many of his works of this period have been lost, either from natural aging or from damage from the owners. In Mytilene, the very known art critic and publisher Stratis Eletheriadis (Tériade), who lived in Paris. It was Tériade to whom in big degree Thephilos work got recognition but also the international publicity, that however happened after his death. With Tériade's expence in 1964 the Museum of Theofilos was constructed in Vareia Lesvos.

Theophilos died in March 1934, the eve of Annunciation, maybe from food poisoning. One year later, his works exhibited in the Museum of Louvre as a sample of a genuine popular (naif] painter of Greece.

[edit] Bibliography

Odysseas Elytis, The Painter Theophilos, pub. Ypsilon, Athens 1996. ISBN 960-17-0011-0.
Kitsos Makris, The Painter Theophilos at Pilios, 3rd Edition, εκδ. Δημοτικού Κέντρου Ιστορικών Ερευνών, Αρχείων και Εκθεμάτων Βόλου, Volos 1998. ISBN 960-85703-1-X.
Ε. Παπαζαχαρίου, Ο άλλος Θεόφιλος, εκδ. Κάκτος, Αθήνα 1997.
Ντ. Παπασπύρου, Θεόφιλος Γ.Χ. Μιχαήλ, εκδ. Ιανός, Θεσσαλονίκη 1998. ISBN 960-7771-16-8.