Thalia Flora-Karavia ( gr, Θάλεια Φλωρά-Καραβία, 1871–1960) was a Greek artist and member of the
Munich School who was best known for her sketches of soldiers at war.
Life
Thalia Flora was born in 1871 in
Siatista, Western Macedonia.
In 1874 she moved with her family to
Istanbul. There she obtained a scholarship that let her study from 1883 to 1888 at the Zappeion School for Girls. After graduating she worked as a teacher for a year. She decided to study painting and in 1895 moved to
Munich where she worked with
Georgios Jakobides (1853–1932) and
Nikolaos Gyzis
Nikolaos Gyzis ( el, Νικόλαος Γύζης ; german: Nikolaus Gysis; 1 March 1842 – 4 January 1901) was considered one of Greece's most important 19th century painters. He was most famous for his work '' Eros and the Painter'', his first ...
(1842–1901). As a woman she was unable to attend the
Munich Academy of Fine Arts, but instead took courses in design and painting in a private school. She studied beside artists such as
Nikolaos Vokos
Nikolaos Vokos ( el, Νικόλαος Βώκος; 1854 – August 7, 1902) was a Greek painter of the Munich School art movement.
Biography
He was the son of Emmanouil Miaoulis and a grandson of Admiral Andreas Vokos Miaoulis. (1859–1902), Paul Nauen (1859–1932),
Anton Ažbe
Anton Ažbe (30 May 1862 – 5 or 6 August 1905) was a Slovene realist painter and teacher of painting.
Ažbe, crippled since birth and orphaned at the age of 8, learned painting as an apprentice to Janez Wolf and at the Academies in Vienna and ...
(1862–1905) and
Walter Thor (1870–1929). She returned to Istanbul in 1898, then went back to Munich until 1900.
Flora traveled to various cities in Europe.
In 1906 she staged a joint exhibition in Athens with
Sophia Laskaridou
Sophia Laskaridou ( el, Σοφία Λασκαρίδου, 1876 – 13 November 1965) was a Greek artist who was well known for her impressionist paintings in the early part of the 20th century. Later she became better known for her life than for h ...
.
While visiting Egypt in 1907 she married the journalist Nicholas Karavia.
She made
Alexandria her home for the next thirty years. She founded and ran an art school there. During the
Balkan Wars
The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balka