PAINTERS from Albania

1. Kolë Idromeno (1860 - 1939)

With an HPI of 49.95, Kolë Idromeno is the most famous Albanian Painter.  His biography has been translated into 19 different languages on wikipedia.

Nikoll Idromeno (Albanian pronunciation: [ˌniˈkɔɫa kɔl ˈidɾɔˌmɛnɔ]; 15 August 1860 – 12 December 1939), better known as Kolë Idromeno, was an Albanian painter, sculptor, architect, photographer, cinematographer, composer and engineer during the Albanian Renaissance in the nineteenth century. He is widely regarded as a precursor of both realism and landscape art in Albania. Kolë Idromeno was born in Shkodër, which was at that time part of the Ottoman Empire. At age 16, he moved to Venice for six months and began his studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia. Subsequently, he travelled throughout Europe and moved back to Shkodër and worked essentially in a variety of artistic fields. In addition, he made himself strongly committed for the Independence of Albania whereby he was forced to emigrate to Ulcinj. Among his important works are a series of paintings where he tried to depict the social aspects of everyday life, customs and religion exactly as it appears. He was also distinguished for its rich use of colours and decorative shades with certain ethnographic elements and landscapes depicting places in or near Shkodër. As an architect, he drew the plans for around fifty buildings either private and public. He also designed several industrial facilities, banks, the Rozafa cinema and Kafja e Madhe café. The coffered ceiling of the St. Stephen's Cathedral, which is one of the largest cathedrals in the Balkans, was also a design by Kolë Idromeno.