19th century, Constantinople-born, British art patron
Alexander Constantine Ionides (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Ιωνίδης), also known as Konstantinos Ioannou or Iplixis (Κωνσταντίνος Ιωάννου/Ιπλιξής; 1 September 1810 – 10 November 1890) was a British art patron and collector, of Greek ancestry.
Alexander Constantine Iplixes was born in Athens on 1 September 1810. His parents were Constantine Ioannes "Iplik(t)zis" Ioannou/Ionides (1775–1852) and his wife Mariora Ioannou-Sentoukakis (1784–1857). His father set up a London branch for his trading firm in c.1815. In 1827 Alexander came to London, finishing his education at Brixton.
He married Euterpe Sgouta (1816–1892) in Athens, before settling in Cheetham Hill, Manchester. They would have five children.
He then founded his own textile and wheat trading-firm, Ionides and Company (he changed his surname from Ipliktzis to Ionides at this time), operating between London and the Near East and the Balkans.
He soon began to patronise the arts around 1829, both in Britain (where his protégés included Edward Calvert and George Frederic Watts, who became his friends) and in Greece (where he followed his father as a patron of the University of Athens).