Portrait of Michael Avg. Averoff, c.1880
Ioannis Doukas studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts and then at the Munich Academy with Von Piloty; he was subsequently a pupil in Gérôme's studio in Paris. A painter with a large number of exhibitions to his credit, both in Greece and abroad, where he lived until 1876, he devoted an important part of his attention to portraiture, while at the same time concerning himself with mythological and historical subjects, biblical compositions, and allegories.
It is with greater brilliance of colour that Doukas renders the Portrait of Michael A. Averoff (1840 - 1899), Member of Parliament for Evvia for many years and husband of Amalia Landerer-Averoff. The work is marked by the efforts which the artist has made to analyse the inner mood of the subject and to capture those features which lend him his individual characteristics.
