Georges Coronio
Nationality: Greek
Date of birth: 1831
Place of birth: Syra
Date of death: 1895
Place of death: Paris
Category: collector
Identity:
Georges Coronio (Koronios) was a broker, banker and collector. He was the son of Zannis (or Iannis, ie. John) Coronio (Koronios), who was born in Chio in 1794 and died in Syra in 1886. He had a brother Theodore John (Iannis) Coronio, who married Aglaia Ionides.
Life:
Georges Coronio spent most of his life in Constantinople, where he was a broker and then a banker. In 1872 he founded the Banque de Constantinople with A. Syngros and E. Skouloudes. He joined his brother in London around 1890, following his retirement. Whistler complained to Georges Coronio in 1892 that 'the Greek Colony', that is, Coronio, Alexander Ionides and John Cavafy, had been making profits from his paintings, selling them for many more times the price at which they were originally bought: 'filling their purses with the reputation I have taken these years... to make' (GUW #00694).
Bibliography:
Argenti, Philip, Libro d'oro de la noblesse de Chio, Oxford, 1955; Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980.
