MARINE PAINTINGS BY IVAN AIVAZOVSKY PART I

 

American Shipping off the Rock of Gibraltar

 

Ivan Aivazovsky (1817-1900): Biography

 

Aivazovsky, by I. Tyranov, 1841.

Russian painter, master of the sea landscape Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky was born July 29 (July 17 in old style) 1817 in Feodosiya (Crimea).

He was the son of an Armenian merchant Ayvazyan (Gayvazovsky) and was baptized under the name of Hovhannes (Armenian form of the name "John").

Since childhood, Aivazovsky painted and played the violin. Thanks to the patronage of the senator Alexander Kaznacheev, the governor of the Tauria (Crimea) province, he was able to study at the Tauride Gymnasium in Simferopol, and then at the Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, where he attended the classes of landscape painting of Professor Maxim Vorobyov and the battle painting of Professor Alexander Sauerweid.

While studying at the Academy in 1835, Aivazovsky's work "Etude of Air over the Sea" was awarded with a silver medal. In 1837 he was awarded by the gold medal of the first degree for the painting "Calm".

In view of Aivazovsky's accomplishments, in 1837, the Academy's council adopted an unusual decision - to let him graduate (two years earlier) from the academy and send him to the Crimea for independent work, and after that, on a business trip abroad.

In 1837-1839, Aivazovsky created paintings in the Crimea, later he received a grant from the Academy of Arts and perfected his mastery in Italy.

The paintings "Landing at the Subashi" and "View of Sevastopol" (1840) were purchased by Emperor Nicholas I. In Rome, the artist painted "The Storm and the Chaos”. "The Cherkessian Pirate Boat", "Silence in the Mediterranean Sea "and "Capri Island". In 1843, he was awarded by a gold medal at the Paris exhibition.

Since 1844 Aivazovsky was an academician and painter of the Main Naval Staff of Russia, since 1847 - a professor, since 1887 - an honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts.

Since 1845 Aivazovsky lived and worked in his native Feodosiya, where he built a house on the beach by his own design. During his life, he made a series of trips: several times he visited Italy, France and other European countries, he worked on the Caucasus, sailed to the shores of Asia Minor, was in Egypt, and in 1898 made a trip to America.

His paintings "Views of the Black Sea" and "The Monastery of St. George" made him famous internationally. The painting "Four Wealthes of Russia" brought Aivazovsky in 1857 the French Order of the Legion of Honor.

In early 1873 in Florence, an exhibition of paintings by Aivazovsky received many positive reviews. He became one of the most recognizable representatives of the Russian school of painting all over the world. In this capacity, Aivazovsky was honored to submit a self-portrait in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 Aivazovsky wrote a series of paintings.

In 1888 he finished a series of his paintings devoted to various episodes from the life of Columbus.

In total since 1846 more than 120 personal exhibitions of Aivazovsky were held. According to estimations, during his lifetime the artist created about six thousand paintings, drawings and watercolors.

Among them, the most famous are "the Navarin Battle", "The Chesma Battle" (both 1848), a series of paintings "Defense of Sevastopol" (1859), "The Ninth Wave" (1850) and "Black Sea" (1881), recreating the greatness and power of the sea. The artist's last works was "Explosion of a ship", describing one of the episodes of the Greco-Turkish war, painting, which remained unfinished.

He was a member of the Roman, Florentine, Stuttgart and Amsterdam Academies of Arts.

Ivan Aivazovsky taught at the General Art School-workshop in Feodosiya, which he himself founded. For the city population Aivazovsky built a gymnasium and library in Feodosiya, funded an archaeological museum and an art gallery. Due to his influence in St. Petersburg. At his insistence, a water main was installed in the city. Thanks to his efforts, a commercial port and railway were also built. In 1881 Aivazovsky was elected as the first honorary citizen of the city of Feodosiya. In 1890 in Feodosiya City Council installed a fountain-monument to the "Good Genius" in commemoration of the artist's merits.

Ivan Aivazovsky died on the night of May 2 (19 April according to the old style) in 1900 in Feodosia. He was buried in the territory of the ancient Armenian Church of St. Sergius (Surb Sargis).

His paintings are kept in many countries of the world, museums and private collections. The largest is the collection of Feodosiya Picture Gallery named after Ivan Aivazovsky, which includes 416 works, 141 of them are paintings, the rest are graphic works. In 1930 in Feodosiya at the artist's house his monument was erected. In 2003, the monument to Aivazovsky was erected in the center of Yerevan, in 2007 - on Makarovsky embankment of the sea fortress of Kronstadt, near St. Petersburg.

The artist was twice married. His first wife was his former governess Julia Grevs, and the couple had four daughters. The second wife of the artist was the widow of Feodosiya merchant Anna Burnazyan (Sarkizova). The elder brother of the artist Gavriil Aivazovsky (1812-1880) was the Archbishop of the Georgian-Imeretian Armenian diocese, a member of the Echmiadzin Synod, a well-known orientalist, and a writer.

MARINE PAINTINGS PART I

 

 

A Bathing Hut, Feodosiya

 

A Beached Ship 1880

 

A Corner of Constantinople from the Sea by Moonlight

 

A Lighthouse In the Moonlight 1849

 


A Moonlit View of the Bosphorus 1884

 

A Naval Engagement at Sunset

 

A Rocky Coastal Landscape In the Aegean with Ships In the Distance

 

A Sailboat off the Coast Of Yalta. View of Mount Ayu-Dag 1893

 

A Ship In Stormy Seas

 


A Steamboat Sailing by an Iceberg 1894

 


A View of the Bosphorus 1860 -1867

 


A View of Feodosiya 1898

 


A Windmill Overlooking a Moonlit Bay 1858

 


Pushkin and Countess Raevskaya In Gurzuf

 


Sketching by The Ayu Dag

 

Alexander Ii Crossing the Danube

 


Along the Coast

 

Among the Waves 1898

 


An American Steamer In Heavy Seas

 


View of the Port of Odessa 1867

 


View of the City of Feodosiya

 


Approaching City at Night 1889

 


A Ship on the Night Sea 1864

 


At Sea 1852

 


At the Water's Edge

 


In the Crimea 1865

 


Fishing Boats at a Napolitan Coast 1866

 


Boat In Moonlight 1868

 


Boat In the Storm 1870

 


Boat On The Nile with Pyramids Of Gizeh 1872

 


Bosporus

 


Brig Mercury Attacked by Two Turkish Ships 1892

 


Morning at South Ayu Dag 1885

 


Storm at Sea 1873

 


Byron In Venice

 


Calm on Early Evening Sea 1884

 


Calm Seas 1884

 


Calm Waters 1875

 


Calm Waters 1880

 


Capture Turkish Kocherma

 


Clouds Over a Calm 1891

 


Coast At Sunset

 


Coastal Scene with Stormy Waters

 


Columbus Sailing from Palos 1892

 


Constantinople at Dawn 1851

 


Constantinople Sunset

 


Constantinople, Tophane Mosque 1884

 


Constantinople, View of the Golden Horn with a Self-Portrait of the Artist Sketching 1880

 


Constantinople

 


Crimean Coast

 


Crimean Coast by Moolight 1898

 


Crimean Coast by Moonlight 1853

 


Crimean Coast In Moonlight 1859

 


Crimean View

 


Crossing The Dnepr River at Night 1897

 


Departing for Foreign Shores

 


The Survivor 1853

 


The Coast at Naples In the Evening Light 1878

 


Battle at Night 1853

 


The Wave 1878

 


Distressed Ship off the Black Sea Coast

 


Dusk on the Golden Horn

 


After the Storm 1895

 


Unknown

 


Evening In Crimea 1895

 


Farewell Scene on the Seashore 1859

 


Feodosiya 1817

 


Figures In a Coastal Landscape at Sunset

 


Fisherman off the Crimea

 


Fishermen on the Crimean Coast

 


Fishermen Returning Near Naples

 


Gibraltar by Night 1844

 


Gulf of Naples Overlooking Mount Vesuvius 1873

 

Big sailing ship off Capri 1858

 


Big Sailing Ship Off The Coast At Sunset 1855

 


Gunboat off Crete 1897

 


Ice on The Dniepr 1872

 


In Stormy Waters 1893

 


Ship in a Stormy Sea 1858

 


Rough Sea off a Rocky Coast 1893

 


Rainbow-1848

 


Frozen Bosporus Under Snow

 


Kerch

 


Kronstadt 1897

 


Kronstadt Fort Emperor Alexander 1. 1844

 


Coastal Landscape In Italy 1878

 


Naples Landscape

 


Lifeboat 1874

 


Loading Provisions off the Crimean Coast

 


Lowering The Boats

 


Marine 1843

 


Marine 1887

 


Marine 1889

 


Marine 1898

 


Marine At Sunset 1883

 


Marine Scene 1893

 


Marine 1886

 


Marine and Landscape Painter 1847

 


Moonlight Reflecting on Water

 


Moonlit Coast

 


Moonlit Landing 1895

 


Moonlit Night on the Dnieper 1887

 


Moonlit Seascape Shipwreck

 


Morning at Sea 1849

 


Morning In the Crimea

 


Morning on the Edge of the Crimea 1865

 


After the storm 1892

 


Naval Ship 1963

 


Nice 1896

 


On the Coast at Night 1875

 


On the Rocky Shore 1866

 


Passing The Rock of Gibraltar

 


Port Scene

 


Pushkin and Countess Raevskaya by the sea Near Gurzuf and Partenit

 


Rainbow 1848

 


Beach Landscape 1888

 


Rescue at Sea

 


Rescue at Sea off a Mountainous Coast 1868

 


Resting Ashore 1891

 


Reval In Estland 1845

 


Rocky Seashore 1876

 


Rowing Ashore by Moonlight 1895

 

Rush

 


Russian Shipping at Sunset 1888

 


The Disembarkment 1900

 


The Golden Horn, Constantinople, Moonlight 1900

 

The Rescue 1900

 


Sailing at the Mercy of the Sea in the Moonlight 1873

 


Sailing Boat at Sunset Flying the Russian Tricolour

 


Sailing Boats off Capri

 


Sailing off the Crimean Coast 1871

 


Sailing Ship In a Turbulent Sea 1881

 


Sailing Ship on a Stormy Sea 1870

 


Sailing Ship on Stormy Sea

 


Sailing Ships In the Coastal City

 


Sailing through The Haze

 


Sailing Vessel by the Coast In Moonlight, Crimea

 

Sailors Coming Ashore 1897

 


Saluting an Imperial Dignitary

 


Salvation

 


San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice

 


Ship on the Sea

 


Shipwreck On The Coast

 


Sea 1878

 


Sea Coast 1886

 


Sea Landscape

 


Sea Landscape

 


Sea View 1865

 


Searching for Survivors 1870

 


Seascape

 


Seascape

 


Seascape with a Sailing Ship and a Dinghy In Rough Waves

 


Seascape

 


Sailing ship At Mondl

 


Sevastopol

 


Ship at Moonlight 1884

 


Ship at Sea

 


Ship at Sea 1895

 


Ship at Sea 1895

 


Ship at Sea 1888

 


Ship In the Moonlight

 


Ship In the Stormy Sea

 


Ship Moored In The Bay Of Naples

 


Ship on a Stormy Sea 1889

 


Ship on Rough Seas 1888

 


Ship on Stormy Seas

 


Shipping Along the Coast 1879

 


Shipping Along the Crimean Coast 15 July 1872

 


Shipping by Moonlight off A Rocky Coast Feodosya

 


Shipping In Moonlight 1853

 


Shipping off Ischia

 


Shipping off The Ayu Dag 1867

 


Shipping off The Coast

 


Shipping off The Dutch Coast 1844

 


Shipping off The Island Of Ischia 1894

 


Shipping on a Moonlit Coast

 


Ships at Anchor off The Beach at Yalta

 


Ships At Sea by Moonlight

 


Ships Near the Coast 1886

 


Ships on a Rough Sea with Cliff-Lined Coast In the Foreground 1878

 


Ships on the Coast In the Moonlight

 


Shipwreck at Dawn 1867

 


Shipwreck at Mount Athos 1856

 


Shipwreck at Sunset 1868

 


Shipwreck at Sunset 1878

 


Shipwreck by a Snowy Shore

 


Shipwreck off the Black Sea Coast

 


Shipwreck On Stormy Seas 1886

 


Shipwreck on The Black Sea 1875

 


Shipwreck

 


Circa 1878

 


Stary Krym, a Fountain 1858

 


Steam Ship off the Coast 1882

 


Storm on the Black Sea 1895

 


Storm over the Black Sea 1893

 


Stormy Sea 1898

PART II >>