Stamatis Voulgaris
1774–1842 · Greek-French painter and urban planner linked to Barbizon
Stamatis Voulgaris (Lefkimmi, Corfu, 1774 – Corfu, 1842) was a Greek-born painter, soldier and urban planner. Born in the Venetian Ionian Islands, he served in the French army, received French citizenship in 1817 and took painting lessons in the studio of Jacques-Louis David. In the 1820s he lived at Chailly-en-Bière with Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, part of the group of open-air painters working in the forest of Fontainebleau who would later be known as the Barbizon School. His description of that forest, included in his Souvenirs, is regarded as the earliest known account of this artists' colony.
After the Greek War of Independence began, he was sent to Greece in 1828 as an engineer officer. Commissioned by governor Ioannis Kapodistrias, he designed several towns, most notably the 1829 plan for Patras, a grid of blocks, squares and avenues that was only partly carried out. For this reason he is considered the first urban planner of modern Greece.