Portrait (oil on canvas) of Maria Katelouzou – Eleftherios’ wife (1870-1894), painted by Ioannis Stavrakis (1891), and placed in a carved wooden frame of that era. She was Eleftherios Venizelos’ first wife, whom she married in 1891 and they had two sons, Kyriakos (1893) and Sophocles (1894). A few days after their second child’s birth, Maria died of postpartum fever. Her death deeply affected Eleftherios Venizelos who pulled away from all people for almost one year, but visited her grave in the cemetery of Agia Fotini every day, carrying a book and reading to her. He grew a goatee then, as a sign of mourning according to Cretan customs, which became a characteristic element of his face throughout his later life.