Alexander Constantine Ionides
Alexander Constantine Ionides, also known as Konstantinos Ioannou or Iplixis was a British art patron and collector, of Greek ancestry.
Life
Alexander Constantine Iplixes was born in Constantinople on 1 September 1810. His parents were Constantine Ioannes "Iplikzis" Ioannou/Ionides and his wife Mariora Ioannou-Sentoukakis. His father set up a London branch for his trading firm in. In 1827 Alexander came to London, finishing his education at Brixton.He married Euterpe Sgouta in Constantinople, before settling in Cheetham Hill, Manchester. They would have five children.
He then founded his own textile and wheat trading-firm, Ionides and Company, operating between London and the Near East and the Balkans.
He soon began to patronise the arts around 1829, both in Britain and in Greece.
Image:Constantine501.jpg|thumb|Alexander Constantine Ionides and his wife and children, by George Frederic Watts, 1841
In 1834 Ionides and his family moved to London, where they lived at 9 Finsbury Circus from 1834 to 1839). In 1837 he became a naturalised British citizen. Afterwards they moved to Tulse Hill and finally to 1 Holland Park, during which time began to gather an artistic salon at his home. Acting as Greek consul-general in 1854–1866, he held directorships of the Crystal Palace.
Children
- Constantine Alexander Ionides, patron and collector
- Aglaia Coronio, patron, collector, confidante of Morris and a friend of Rossetti
- Luke Ionides, friend of Whistler, patron and collector, whose fourth son Basil became an architect
- Alexander, who joined with his father in collecting Tanagra figurines and Greek vases
- Chariclea Anthea Euterpe Dannreuther, married the musician Edward Dannreuther
In popular culture
- Ionides is one of the inspirations for the character Sir Lewis Cornelys in the 1894 George du Maurier novel Trilby.