Pavlos Rodokanakis

Pavlos Rodokanakis (Greek: Παύλος Ροδοκανάκης, Italian: Paolo Rodocanachi; 29 May 1891 – 16 May 1958) was an Italian-born Greek painter.

Biography Rodokanakis was born in Genoa in 1891 and came from a large wealthy family.

He started his artistic education as a student of Giuseppe Pennasilico (1861–1940) in his hometown. Later on he studied painting under Giulio Bargellini (1875–1936) and graphics under Vittorio Grassi (1878–1958) at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma (Academy of Fine Arts Rome).

In 1911 Rodokanakis made his debut at an exhibition of the Società Promotrice di Belle Arti (Society for the Promotion of Fine Arts) in Genoa. Although he lived in a barrack camp for two years, he managed to be productive creatively. His efforts to distinguish himself as a painter resulted in an invitation to Munich in the summer of 1918. There, in Munich`s Glaspalast (Glass Palace), Rodokanakis took part in the annual art exhibition. The success in Munich led to another exhibition in the Stadthalle (town hall) Görlitz in November 1918, which showed more than 50 of his works and which was extremely well received. In the same year, a solo exhibition of some of the painter's works took place in the premises of the Athens daily newspaper Eleftheros Typos. In the following years, he participated in several exhibitions where either only his work was presented or his work was shown together with those of other artists. In the years 1935, 1939, 1948 and 1952 he took part in the highly regarded national exhibitions of the Quadriennale in Rome. His participation in the Venice Biennale in 1934, 1940 and 1948, in which he represented either Greece or his chosen home Italy, received particular attention.

Rodokanakis was married to the translator and writer Lucia Rodocanachi (1901–1978), née Morpurgo.

The painter died in Genoa in 1958.

Work The oeuvre of Rodokanakis is mainly characterized by landscape depictions but also figure painting. There are unmistakable references to symbolism and Art Nouveau, especially in his early creations. Many works have an impressionistic touch.