Description

Synopsis

La fiche de Georgios Prokopiou sur wikipedia nous renseigne sur le parcours du peintre et par la même occasion sur celui de son frère Socrates Prokopiou, auteur du livre présenté.

In 1901, after completing his studies, he returned to Smyrna and held his first exhibition. Two years later, he travelled to Alexandria and Cairo, where he painted portraits of notable figures in the Greek communities there, including Pavlos Melas, who introduced him to the head of Ethiopia’s diplomatic mission. This resulted in an invitation to visit Addis Ababa to do a portrait of Emperor Menelik. He went there by caravan from Djibouti, accompanied by his brother Socrates, who would later write a book about the trip. After competing with several other painters, he was chosen to become the Court Painter in 1905. In addition to painting the Royal Family, he portrayed several ambassadors as well as landscapes and village scenes. Lavish with honours, the Emperor awarded him the Order of Solomon, the Order of the Star of Ethiopia and other lesser-known medals. (source Wikipedia).

Dans l’ouvrage de référence “L’empire d’Ethiopie” de Zervos, p. 468, Socrate A. Procopiou est qualifié de peintre pour la date de 1905. En bas de la même page, on le retrouve à la présidence de l’Union Gréco-Ethiopienne, fondée à Athènes 1930.

Biblethiophile, 27.05.2018