Yanoulis Halepas

Yanoulis Halepas was born in 1851 in Pyrgos, a village on the island of Tinos. He studied sculpture (1869–1872) at the School of Industrial and Fine Arts in Athens (the precursor of the Athens School of Fine Arts) under Leonidas Drossis and continued his studies at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts under Max von Widnmann (1873–1875). In 1877, he created “Sleeping Beauty,” one of the most celebrated masterpieces of modern Greek sculpture, for the tomb of Sophia Afentaki in the First Cemetery of Athens. It was during the same year that the first symptoms of mental illness began to manifest. From 1888 to 1902, Halepas was hospitalized in the Public Psychiatric Hospital of Corfu. After a 40-year hiatus, he returned to sculpture in 1918, now developing a new, anti-naturalistic style characteristic of the period after the onset of his mental illness. The first solo exhibition of his sculptures was held in 1925 at the Academy of Athens. In 1928, Nikos Velmos showcased Halepas’ sculptures and drawings at the ‘Art Asylum’ in Plaka. In 1930, the sculptor settled in Athens, where he lived at his niece’s house. There, he was blessed with the opportunity to work with uninterrupted focus in a nurturing family environment during the last eight years of his life. He died on September 15, 1938, at the age of 87.