About the artist

Ioannis Altamouras was born in Florence in 1852. He was the son of the Italian professor at the Naples Academy of Fine Arts, Saverio Altamura, and the painter Eleni Boukouri from Spetses, who gave him his first painting lessons. Aged nine, after his parent’s separation, he returned to Athens with his mother and sister.  In Athens, he studied under Nikephoros Lytras at the School of Arts and, on scholarship from George I and on the recommendation of the architect Christian Hansen, went on to study at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen (1873-1876). In Denmark, he studied under the seascape artist Karl Frederik Sorensen’s. In 1876, ill with tuberculosis, he returned to Greece and settled in Spetses, where he died.  Dying young, Altamouras left behind a few but very important artworks. Familiar with the European tradition of seascape painting, he applied himself to this genre, depicting Greek and Scandinavian seascapes, ports and naval battles that reveal his affinity to Impressionism.