Elektra Elena Megaw (née Mangoletsi) was born into a Christian Orthodox family in Thessaloniki, Ottoman Empire (now Greece) in 1905. She immigrated to Manchester, England with her family while she was still young. Mangoletsi received her art education in London, including at the Slade. Combining a keen aesthetic sensibility with a deep interest in ethnographic study, she established a particular specialisation in botanical illustrations. Mangoletsi’s illustrations featured in the volume, 'Wild Flowers of Cyprus' (Phillimore & Co. Ltd., 1973), co-written with Desmond Meikle, Head of the European Section at the Herbarium in Kew, documenting the island’s flora.
Elektra Elena Megaw (née Mangoletsi) was born in Thessaloniki, Ottoman Empire (now Greece) in 1905. Her parents were from a distinguished Christian Orthodox family from Koritsa (now in Albania). Situated near Greece and predominantly inhabited by Orthodox Christians, Koritsa was a site of intense conflict during the late Ottoman era. While still a child, she immigrated to England with her parents and grew up in Manchester. Mangoletsi subsequently pursued her art education at both the Slade School of Art and University College London. In 1927, at the Slade she met the Indian-born British Surrealist Ithell Colquhoun and the two stayed life-long friends, travelling together to Greece in 1933.
Mangoletsi’s artistic practice demonstrates a keen aesthetic sensibility, alongside a deep interest in ethnographic study, with a particular specialisation in botanical illustrations. Her drawings provide a detailed depiction of flowers, employing fine, controlled lines to capture their distinct characteristics, with clear attention to the realistic shape of the whole; careful shading and precise representation of the plant’s anatomy reflecting her considerable skill. The use of soft watercolour highlights the subtle tonal variations within the petals and foliage, creating a sense of realism, while maintaining an artistic interpretation. Mangoletsi’s illustrations were featured in the volume Wild Flowers of Cyprus (Phillimore & Co. Ltd., 1973), co-written with Desmond Meikle, Head of the European Section at the Herbarium in Kew, which documented the island’s flora. The works for this volume were created over an extended period, with the first illustration dating back to 1938 and depicting rare, and in some cases, extinct flowers. While Mangoletsi was primarily known for her botanical works, she also created portraits that reflected the same realism and clarity as her plant illustrations. Her 1956 bust portrait of a blonde woman, rendered in soft pastels, captures the profile with delicate details, particularly highlighting the smooth texture of the subject’s blonde hair and serene expression. The subtle blending of cool tones in the background contrasts with the warm hues on the face, drawing attention to the features, while the warmth of the whole piece suggests an intimate personal connection.
In 1937, she married Arthur Hubert Stanley ‘Peter’ Megaw CBE (1910–2006), an Irish-born architectural historian and archaeologist. Megaw held significant positions throughout his career, including the first Director of the Department of Antiquities in Cyprus from 1935 to 1960 and Director of the British School at Athens between 1962 and 1968. Following his early retirement, he became a visiting scholar at the Harvard Centre for Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC. Over the course of their fifty-six years of marriage, they shared numerous travels and collaborated on many of Megaw’s projects.
Mangoletsi donated her artistic portfolio, along with the illustrated Herbarium, to the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation (BOCCF). This donation comprises 51 watercolour paintings created by the artist, all centred around the theme ‘The Wildflowers of Cyprus’ and used in the aforementioned publication. These watercolours are part of the Foundation's Cyprological collections and stand as independent works of art that display life-size meticulous botanical accuracy. A watercolour depiction of a tulip (Tulipa saxatilis), is held at the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation in Pittsburgh, USA. The American School of Classical Studies at Athens holds a photograph of the Dutch artist Piet de Jong, which is connected to Mangoletsi, as the paintings or illustrations on the wall are possibly hers and the two shared an interest in archaeological sites in Greece. Elektra Mangoletsi spent a significant part of her life between Cyprus and Greece but died in 1993, most likely in Hampstead, London, England. In the UK public domain, a portrait of Mangoletsi by Colquhoun is held at the National Portrait Gallery, London.