page_title: Georgios Prokopiou
section_title: Greco-Turkish and Greco-Italian Wars
hierarchical_section_title: Georgios Prokopiou / Biography / Greco-Turkish and Greco-Italian Wars
caption_attribution_description: English: Greek attack, Albanian front 1940
context_page_description: Georgios Prokopiou was a Greek war artist, photographer and documentary film maker. He also served as court painter to Emperor Menelik II and was a recipient of the Greek Military Cross.
context_section_description: After the war, Smyrna came under Greek control. The following year, General Leonidas Paraskevopoulos commissioned him to produce paintings, photographs and films of the Greek campaigns against the Turks during the Greco-Turkish War. Although they admired his courage, a few commanders complained that his activities interfered with military operations. After the Turkish recapture of Smyrna, he returned home to be with his family and remained to take photographs of the Great Fire.
  When the chaos had subsided, he was arrested and sentenced to death by a Turkish tribunal. Luckily, the prison commandant allowed him to say goodbye to his family. With the assistance of his neighbors and the French Consul, he and his family were able to escape aboard a French ship that took them to Piraeus. In 1925, he settled in Athens. He continued to paint military scenes from memory until 1928, after which he produced a variety of nudes, scenes of ruins and portraits, including one of Haile Selassie, who visited his studio shortly before becoming Emperor.
  In 1940, the Greco-Italian War began when Greece refused to capitulate to the Axis Powers. Although Prokopiou was sixty-four years old and ill with bronchitis, he went to the War Ministry, begging to be sent to the front. Finally, he wrote to Prime Minister Metaxas, saying that he was ashamed to stay at home when his two sons were out fighting for Greece. Metaxas agreed to his request, and Prokopiou left for Albania to join the Greek counter-offensive. He met up with his son, Angelos, sketching and taking photographs almost immediately. One night, several weeks later, when the temperature fell below zero, he died of heart failure. He was given the posthumous rank of Colonel, brought back to Athens, and buried with full military honors.
caption: Greek attack on the Albanian front (1940)
exif: {}