Theophilos Hatzimihail (1870 - 1934), known simply as Theophilos, was a major folk painter of modern Greek art. The main subject of his works are Greek characters and the illustration of Greek traditional folklife and history.

His life was very hard in part because people made fun of him, since he went around wearing the traditional Greek kilt, the fustanella. At the age of 18 he abandoned his home and family and worked as a gate-keeper at the Greek consulate in Smyrna. There he stayed a few years, before he settled in the city of Volos in about 1897, searching for occasional work and painting in houses and shops of the area. Many of his murals exist today. Most of his years he spent in Ano Volos. His protector during that period was the landholder Giannis Kontos, for whom he did many works. Today the house of Kontos is the Theophilos Museum.

In 1927 he returned to Mytilene. Legend states that he left Volos because of an incident in a kafeneio (coffee shop), when someone played a joke on him in front of others and threw him down from a ladder where he was painting. In Mytilene, despite the mockery of the people, he continued to draw, painting many murals in villages for little payment, usually for a plate of food and a cup of wine. Many of his works of this period have been lost, either due to natural aging or from damage by the owners.

With Tériade's funding in 1964 the Museum of Theophilos was constructed in Vareia, Lesbos. Theophilos died in March 1934, on the eve of the Annunciation, perhaps from food poisoning. One year later, his works were exhibited in the Louvre as a sample of a genuine folk painter of Greece.

THEOFILOS TEAM

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Ricardo Romero Miranda
Rosa Pino
Mikko Ikävalko
Rachel Henry
Rosa Palma
Anas Hatim Radi
Fadhil Ahmed Ameen
Thi Hieu Duong

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