Aivazovsky Ivan Konstantinovich, part 1 (1817 - 1900)
I.N. Kramskoy argued that Aivazovsky "is a star of the first magnitude, in any case, and not only with us, but in the history of art in general."
P.M. Tretyakov, wanting to buy a painting for his gallery, wrote to the artist: "...Give me your magical water such that it would perfectly convey your incomparable talent."
In painting, Aivazovsky was, above all, a poet. The artist said about himself: “The plot of the picture is formed in my memory, like the plot of a poem by a poet, having made a sketch on a piece of paper, I get to work and do not leave the canvas until I express myself on it with my brush.”
During his long life he wrote up to 6000 works. The best of them entered the treasury of world culture. His paintings are in many galleries around the world.
Portrait of the artist Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky
1841
Oil on canvas 72 x 54.2
Moscow
Ivan (Hovhannes) Konstantinovich Aivazovsky was born on July 17 (30), 1817 in Feodosia. Aivazovsky's ancestors in the 18th century moved from Western (Turkish) Armenia to the south of Poland. At the beginning of the 19th century, the merchant Konstantin (Gevorg) Gaivazovsky moved from Poland to Feodosia. After the plague epidemic that befell Feodosia in 1812, the Gaivazovsky family had a hard time. The wife of Konstantin Hripsime, a skilled embroiderer, helped support the family, which included two daughters and three sons.
Aivazovsky received his primary education in the Armenian parish school, and then graduated from the Simferopol gymnasium, in which the city architect Koch helped him to appoint. In 1833, with the assistance of the Feodosia mayor A. Kaznacheev, Aivazovsky went to St. Petersburg, and according to the children's drawings presented, he was enrolled in the Academy of Arts in the landscape class of Professor M. N. Vorobyov. Then he studied in the battle class with A. Sauerweid and for a short time with the marine painter F. Tanner invited from France.
Already in 1835 he was awarded a silver medal of the second denomination for "Study of Air over the Sea". In 1837, for three sea views and especially for the painting “Calm”, he was awarded the First Gold Medal and the academic course was reduced by two years, with the condition that during this time he painted landscapes of a number of Crimean cities. As a result of a trip to the Crimea, views of Yalta, Feodosia, Sevastopol, Kerch and the paintings “Moonlight Night in Gurzuf” (1839), “Storm”, “Seashore” (1840) appeared.
Aivazovsky I.K. Moonlit night in Crimea. Gurzuf.
1839
Sumy Art Museum
"Coast"
1840
Canvas, oil. 42.8 x 61.5 cm
State Tretyakov Gallery
Windmill by the sea»
1837
Oil on canvas 67 x 96
Saint Petersburg
Seashore at night
1837
47 x 66 cm
Canvas, oil
Romanticism, realism
Russia
Theodosius. Feodosia Art Gallery. I.K.
Kerch
1839
In 1839, Aivazovsky took part as an artist in a naval campaign to the shores of the Caucasus. On board the ship, he meets M. P. Lazarev, V. A. Kornilov, P. S. Nakhimov, V. N. Istomin, and gets the opportunity to study the designs of warships. Creates the first battle canvas - "Landing at Subashi".
“Landing N.N. Raevsky at Subashi"
1839
Canvas, oil. 66 x 97 cm
Samara Art Museum
There he also met the decommissioned Decembrists M. M. Naryshkin, A. I. Odoevsky, N. N. Lorer, who took part in the case under Subashi. The Crimean works of the artist were successfully exhibited at the exhibition at the Academy of Arts, and as an encouragement, I.K. Aivazovsky was given a business trip to Italy.
"Naval Battle of Navarino (October 2, 1827)"
1846
Oil on canvas 222 x 234
Saint Petersburg
"Naval battle at Vyborg on June 29, 1790"
1846
Canvas, oil. 222 x 335 cm
Higher Naval Engineering School named after F.E. Dzerzhinsky
"Naval battle at Revel (May 9, 1790)"
1846
Oil on canvas 222 x 335
Naval School. F. E. Dzerzhinsky
Saint Petersburg
Russia
In 1840, Aivazovsky went to Italy. There he met with the bright figures of Russian literature, art, science - Gogol, Alexander Ivanov, Botkin, Panaev. At the same time, in 1841, the artist changed the name Gaivazovsky to Aivazovsky.
Azure grotto. Naples
1841
74 x 100 cm
Canvas, oil
Romanticism, realism
Russia
Donetsk. Donetsk Art Museum,
View of the Venetian Lagoon
1841 76x118
The artist's activity in Rome begins with the study and copying of the works of the masters of the past, he works a lot on natural studies. In one of his letters, Aivazovsky said: “I, like a bee, collect honey from a flower garden.” Throughout his life, he returned to the landscapes of Italy, the harmonious coexistence of man and the sea in this country was imprinted in his memory as a model of beauty. Aivazovsky created about fifty large paintings in Italy. The success of the artist brought romantic seascapes "Storm", "Chaos", "Naples Bay on a moonlit night" (1839) and others. His painting “Chaos” was acquired by the Vatican Museum. Pope Gregory XVI awarded the artist a gold medal. The artist's talent is recognized by art connoisseurs and colleagues. A. Ivanov notes the ability of Aivazovsky in depicting the sea, the engraver F. Jordan claims that Aivazovsky is the pioneer of the genre of marine painting in Rome.
"Chaos. World creation"
1841
Oil on canvas 106 x 75
Museum of the Armenian Mekhitarist Congregation
Venice. Island of St. Lazarus
"Gulf of Naples"
1841
Oil on canvas 73 x 108
View of Constantinople at night
1846 120x189.5
"View of Constantinople by Moonlight"
1846
Oil on canvas 124 x 192
State Russian Museum
Saint Petersburg
Russia
1850
Oil on canvas 121 x 190
Feodosia
Bay of Naples on a moonlit night
1892
Oil on canvas 45 x 73
Collection of A. Shahinyan
NY
In 1843, the artist's journey begins with an exhibition of paintings across Europe. “Rome, Naples, Venice, Paris, London, Amsterdam honored me with the most flattering encouragement,” Aivazovsky recalled. One of them is the title of academician, awarded by the Amsterdam Academy of Fine Arts. As the only representative of Russian art, he participated in an international exhibition organized at the Louvre. Ten years later, he was the first foreign artist to become a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.
"Shipwreck"
1843
Oil on canvas 116 x 189
Feodosia Art Gallery. I. K. Aivazovsky
Feodosia
Russia
In 1844, two years ahead of schedule, Aivazovsky returned to Russia. Upon his return to his homeland, the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts honors him with the title of academician. The Naval Department awarded him the honorary title of the artist of the Main Naval Staff with the right to wear the Admiralty uniform and instructed the “extensive and complex order” to paint all Russian military ports on the Baltic Sea. During the winter months of 1844-1845. Aivazovsky fulfilled a government order and created a number of beautiful marinas.
"Russian squadron on the Sevastopol roadstead"
1846
Canvas, oil. 121 x 191 cm
State Russian Museum
In 1845, together with the expedition of F.P. Litke, Aivazovsky visited the coast of Turkey and Asia Minor. During this voyage, he made a large number of pencil drawings, which served him for many years as material for creating paintings, which he always painted in the studio. Returning from the expedition, Aivazovsky leaves for Feodosia. “This feeling or habit is my second nature. I willingly spend the winter in St. Petersburg, - the artist wrote, - but it will blow a little in the spring, I am attacked by homesickness - I am drawn to the Crimea, to the Black Sea.
View of Feodosia
1845
70 x 96 cm
Canvas, oil
Romanticism, realism
Russia
Yerevan. State Art Gallery of Armenia
Theodosius. Sunrise
1852 60x90
In Feodosia, the artist built a studio house on the seashore and finally settled here. In winter, he usually visited St. Petersburg and other cities of Russia with his exhibitions, sometimes he traveled abroad. During his long life, Aivazovsky made a number of trips: he visited Italy, Paris and other European cities several times, worked in the Caucasus, sailed to the shores of Asia Minor, was in Egypt, and at the end of his life, in 1898, he traveled to America. During sea voyages, he enriched his observations, and drawings accumulated in his folders. The artist spoke about his creative method: “A person who is not gifted with a memory that preserves the impressions of wildlife can be an excellent copyist, a living photographic apparatus, but never a true artist. The movements of the living elements are elusive for the brush: writing lightning, a gust of wind, a splash of a wave is unthinkable from nature. The plot of the picture is formed in my memory, like the plot of a poem in a poet ... ".
Meeting of fishermen on the shores of the Gulf of Naples 1842 58х85
"Meeting of fishermen"
Canvas, oil. 58 x 85 cm
State Tretyakov Gallery
"Gondelier at sea at night"
1843
Oil on canvas 73 x 112
State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan
Kazan
Russia
"Venetian Lagoon. View of the island of San Giorgio»
1844
Wood, oil. 22.5 x 34.5 cm
State Tretyakov Gallery
Mill on the seashore 1851 50x57
"Sunrise in Feodosia"
1855
Oil on canvas 82 x 117
Yerevan
"Georgievsky Monastery. Cape Fiolent»
1846
Oil on canvas 122.5 x 192.5
Feodosia Art Gallery. I. K. Aivazovsky
Feodosia
View of Odessa on a moonlit night
1846
122 x 190 cm
Canvas, oil
Romanticism, realism
Russia
"View of Odessa from the sea"
1865
Oil on canvas 45 x 58
State Art Gallery of Armenia
Yerevan
Aivazovsky's painting of the forties and fifties was marked by a strong influence of the romantic traditions of K. P. Bryullov, which affected the artist's painting skills. Like Bryullov, he strives to create grandiose colorful canvases. This was very clearly reflected in the battle picture “Chesme Battle”, written by him in 1848, dedicated to an outstanding naval battle. The fight is depicted at night. In the depths of the bay, burning ships of the Turkish fleet are visible, one of them at the time of the explosion. Enveloped in fire and smoke, the wreckage of the ship, which has turned into a blazing fire, is flying into the air. In the foreground, the flagship of the Russian fleet rises in a dark silhouette, to which, saluting, a boat approaches with the crew of Lieutenant Ilyin, who blew up his firewall among the Turkish flotilla. On the water, you can discern the wreckage of Turkish ships with groups of sailors calling for help, and other details.
"Chesme battle June 25-26, 1770"
1848
Oil on canvas 220 x 188
Feodosia Art Gallery. I. K. Aivazovsky
Feodosia
Review of the Black Sea Fleet in 1849
1886 131x249
"Brig Mercury attacked by two Turkish ships"
1892
Canvas, oil
"Brig" Mercury "after defeating two Turkish ships, meets with the Russian squadron"
1848
Oil on canvas 123 x 190
State Russian Museum
Saint Petersburg
"Storm at sea at night"
1849
Oil on canvas 89 x 106
Palaces-museums and parks of Petrodvorets
Peterhof, Leningrad region
Aivazovsky's contribution to battle painting is significant. He captured episodes of the Sevastopol defense, repeatedly referred to the heroic deeds of the Russian navy: “Each victory of our troops on land or at sea,” the artist wrote, “pleases me, as a Russian at heart, and gives an idea how the artist can depict it on canvas...”.
"Storm"
1850
Oil on canvas 82 x 117
State Art Gallery of Armenia
Yerevan
Aivazovsky was the last and most prominent representative of the romantic trend in Russian painting. His best romantic works of the second half of the 1940s and 1950s are: “Storm on the Black Sea” (1845), “Georgievsky Monastery” (1846), “Entrance to the Sevastopol Bay” (1851).
Entrance to the Sevastopol Bay 1852
View of Constantinople by moonlight
1846
124 x 192 cm
Canvas, oil
Romanticism, realism
Russia
Saint Petersburg. State Russian Museum
View of the Leander Tower in Constantinople
1848
Canvas, oil
58 x 45.3
Tretyakov Gallery
The largest marine painter in Russian painting of the 19th century, I.K. Aivazovsky, traveled a lot and often included images of famous architectural structures in his seascapes. The Leandrov (Maiden) Tower depicted in the painting was built in the 12th century on a small rock at the entrance to the strait of Istanbul Harbor and has long served as a lighthouse and a mooring place for ships. It is still used as a lighthouse today. The tower rises against the background of a golden sky, the rays of the setting sun paint the surface of the sea water in mother-of-pearl tones, and the silhouettes of the buildings of the ancient city appear in the distance. Soft sunlight romanticizes the landscape created by the artist.
"Moonlight night"
1849
Oil on canvas 123 x 192
State Russian Museum
Saint Petersburg
sunset on the sea
1856
121.5x188
“Night in the Crimea. View of Ayudag»
1859
Oil on canvas 63 x 83
Odessa Art Museum
Odessa
Storm
1857
100x49
The fifties are associated with the Crimean War of 1853-1856. As soon as the rumor about the Battle of Sinop reached Aivazovsky, he immediately went to Sevastopol, asked the participants in the battle about all the circumstances of the case. Soon, two paintings by Aivazovsky were exhibited in Sevastopol, depicting the Sinop battle at night and during the day. Admiral Nakhimov, highly appreciating the work of Aivazovsky, especially the night battle, said: "The picture is extremely well done."
"Sinop battle (daytime version)"
1853
Canvas, oil
"Sinop battle on November 18, 1853 (the night after the battle)"
1853
Canvas, oil. 220 x 331 cm
Central Naval Museum
The capture of the Turkish military transport "Messina" by the steamship "Russia" on the Black Sea on December 13, 1877
The battle of the steamer "Vesta" with the Turkish battleship "Fekhti-Bulend" in the Black Sea on July 11, 1877
In the work of Aivazovsky, one can find paintings on a wide variety of topics, for example, images of the nature of Ukraine. He loved the boundless Ukrainian steppes and depicted them with inspiration in his works (“Chumatsky Convoy” (1868), “Ukrainian Landscape” (1868)), while coming close to the landscape of the masters of Russian ideological realism. Aivazovsky's closeness to Gogol, Shevchenko, Sternberg played a role in this attachment to Ukraine.
Chumaks on vacation
1885
Convoy in the steppe
"Ukrainian landscape with chumaks in the moonlight"
1869
Canvas, oil. 60 x 82 cm
State Tretyakov Gallery
Windmills in the Ukrainian Steppe at sunset
1862 51х60
"A flock of sheep in a storm"
1861
Oil on canvas 76 x 125
Collection of A. Shahinyan
NY
Surroundings of Yalta at night
1866
Neighborhood of Yalta
1863
20.2x28
Storm in the North Sea
1865 269x195
Sunset on the sea
1866
Moonlit night on the Bosphorus
1894 49.7x75.8
After the storm. Moon rise
1894 41x58
"View of the sea from the mountains at sunset"
1864
Oil on canvas 122 x 170
State Russian Museum
Saint Petersburg
"Global flood"
1864
Oil on canvas 246.5 x 369
State Russian Museum
Saint Petersburg
"Death of Pompeii"
1889
Oil on canvas 128 x 218
Rostov Regional Museum of Fine Arts
Rostov
to be continued...
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Among the famous marine painters of all times and peoples, it is difficult to find someone who would be more accurate than Aivazovsky in conveying the majestic power and attractive charm of the sea. This greatest painter of the 19th century left us a unique legacy of paintings that can instill a love for the Crimea and a passion for travel to anyone who has never even been to the sea shores. In many ways, the secret lies in the biography of Aivazovsky, he was born and raised in an environment inseparably connected with the sea.
Youth in the biography of Aivazovsky
Describing the biography of Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky, it must first be noted that he was born in Feodosia, on July 17, 1817, in a merchant family of Armenian origin.
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| Father - Gevork (in the Russian version Konstantin) Ayvazyan; I.K. Aivazovsky. father portrait |
Mother - Hripsime Ayvazyan. I. K. Aivazovsky. mother portrait | Aivazovsky portrayed himself as a boy drawing his native city. 1825 |
At the birth of the boy, they named Hovhannes (this is the Armenian word form of the male name John), and the future famous artist got a modified surname thanks to his father, who, having moved in his youth from Galicia to Moldova, and then to Feodosia, wrote it down in the Polish manner "Gayvazovsky".
The house in which Aivazovsky spent his childhood stood on the outskirts of the city, on a small hill, from where there was an excellent view of the Black Sea, the Crimean steppes and the ancient mounds located on them. From an early age, the boy was lucky to see the sea in its various characters (kind and formidable), to watch fishing feluccas and large ships. The environment awakened the imagination, and very soon the boy's artistic abilities were discovered. The local architect Koch gave him the first pencils, paints, paper and a few first lessons. This meeting was a turning point in the biography of Ivan Aivazovsky.
The beginning of Aivazovsky's biography as a legendary artist
From 1830, Aivazovsky studied at the Simferopol gymnasium, and at the end of August 1833 he went to St. Petersburg, where he entered the then most prestigious Imperial Academy of Arts, and until 1839 he successfully studied the direction of the landscape in the class of Maxim Vorobyov.
The very first exhibition in the biography of Aivazovsky, the artist, which brought fame to the young talent at that time, took place in 1835. Two works were presented at it, and one - "Etude of Air over the Sea" - was awarded a silver medal.
Further, the painter devotes himself more and more to new works, and already in 1837 the famous canvas “Calm” brought Aivazovsky the Big Gold Medal. In the coming years, his biography paintings flaunt at the Academy of Arts.
Aivazovsky: biography at the dawn of creativity
Since 1840, the young artist was sent to Italy, this is one of the special periods in the biography and work of Aivazovsky: for several years he has been improving his skills, studying world art, and actively exhibiting his works at local and European exhibitions. After receiving a gold medal from the Paris Council of Academies, he returned to his homeland, where he received the title of "academician" and was sent to the Main Naval Headquarters with the task of painting several paintings with different Baltic views. Participation in battle operations helped the already famous artist to write one of the most famous masterpieces - "" in 1848.
Two years later, the canvas "" appeared - the most striking event that cannot be missed, even describing the shortest biography of Aivazovsky.
The fifties and seventies of the nineteenth century became the brightest and most fruitful in the career of a painter; Wikipedia describes this period of Aivazovsky's biography quite extensively. In addition, during his life, Ivan Konstantinovich managed to be known as a philanthropist involved in charity, and made a huge contribution to the development of his native city.
At the first opportunity, he returns to Feodosia, where he built a mansion in the style of an Italian palazzo and exhibited his paintings to the audience.
Aivazovsky Feodosia
Ivan Konstantinovich at the dawn of his creative life neglected the opportunity to be close to the tsar's court. At the Paris World Exhibition, his works were awarded a gold medal, in Holland they were awarded the title of academician. This did not go unnoticed in Russia - the twenty-year-old Aivazovsky was appointed artist of the Main Naval Headquarters, and he received a government order - to paint panoramas of the Baltic fortresses.
Aivazovsky fulfilled the flattering order, but after that he said goodbye to St. Petersburg and returned to Feodosia. All the officials and the capital's painters decided that he was an eccentric. But Ivan Konstantinovich was not going to exchange his freedom for the uniform and carousel of St. Petersburg balls. He needs the sea, sunny beach, streets, he needed sea air for creativity.
One of the sights of the city is the Aivazovsky fountain in Feodosia in the Kirovsky district, to which a water pipe has been laid. The fountain was built with the money of the artist and according to his project, and then donated to the residents.
Not being able to continue to be a witness of the terrible disaster that the population of my native city suffers from lack of water from year to year, I give them 50,000 buckets a day of pure water from the Subash spring that belongs to me as an eternal property.
Theodosius was passionately loved by the artist. And the townspeople responded to him with good feelings: they called Ivan Konstantinovich "the father of the city." They say that the painter liked to give drawings: Aivazovsky's paintings in Feodosia, many residents suddenly ended up in their homes as precious gifts.
The water from the artist's estate came to Feodosia, passing a 26-kilometer path through a pipeline built by the city.
He opened an art gallery, a library, and a drawing school in his native city. And he also became the godfather of half of the babies of Theodosia, and each allocated a particle from his solid income.
In the life of Ivan Konstantinovich there were many contradictions that did not complicate his life, but made it original. He was a Turk by origin, an Armenian by upbringing, and became a Russian artist. He communicated with Berillov and his brethren, but he himself never went to their parties and did not understand the bohemian lifestyle. He liked to give away his works, and in everyday life he was known as a pragmatic person.
Museum of Antiquities built by Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky
Aivazovsky Museum in Feodosia
The Aivazovsky Gallery in Feodosia is one of the oldest museums in the country. It is located in the house where the outstanding marine painter lived and worked. The building was personally designed by Ivan Konstantinovich and built in 1845. Thirty-five years later, Aivazovsky created a large hall attached to it. This room is designed to display his paintings before the paintings were sent to exhibitions in other cities and abroad. 1880 is considered the year of the official founding of the museum. Feodosia Aivazovsky Gallery address: st. Golereinaya, 2.
During the war, the building was destroyed - from a ship's shell.
At the time of the artist, the place was famous far abroad and was a unique cultural center in the city. After the death of the painter, the gallery continued to work. By the will of the artist, she became the property of the city, but the local authorities cared little about her. 1921 can rightfully be considered the second birth of the gallery.
In the 19th century, the Aivazovsky art gallery in Feodosia stood out among other architectural structures of the area. The museum stands on the seashore and resembles an Italian villa. This impression is even stronger when the dark red paint on the walls becomes noticeable, the sculptures of the ancient gods in the bays, as well as the gray marble pilasters that go around the facade. Such features of the building are unusual for the Crimea.
Aivazovsky's house, which became an art gallery after his death
When designing the house, the artist thought through the purpose of each room. That is why the reception rooms are not adjacent to the residential section of the house, while the artist's room and studio were connected to the exhibition hall. Raised ceilings, parquet floors on the second floor and the bays of Feodosia, visible from the windows, create an atmosphere of romanticism.
My sincere desire is that the building of my art gallery in the city of Feodosia with all the paintings, statues and other works of art in this gallery that are in this gallery constitute the full property of the city of Feodosia, and in memory of me, Aivazovsky, I bequeath the gallery to the city of Feodosia, my native city.
The center of Feodosia in the art gallery are 49 canvases left by the painter to the city. In 1922, when the museum opened its doors to the Soviet people, only these 49 canvases were in the collection. In 1923, the gallery received 523 paintings from the collection of the artist's grandson. Later came the work of L. Lagorio and A. Fessler.
The legendary painter died on April 19 (according to the old style), 1900. He was buried in Feodosia, in the courtyard of the medieval Armenian church of Surb Sarkis (Saint Sarkis).
Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky (Arm. Հովհաննես Այվազյան, Hovhannes Ayvazyan; July 17, 1817, Feodosia - April 19, 1900, ibid.) - Russian marine painter, battle painter, collector, philanthropist. Painter of the Main Naval Staff, academician and honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Arts, honorary member of the Academies of Arts in Amsterdam, Rome, Paris, Florence and Stuttgart.
The most outstanding artist of Armenian origin of the XIX century.
Brother of the Armenian historian and Archbishop of the Armenian Apostolic Church Gabriel Aivazovsky.
Hovhannes (Ivan) Konstantinovich Aivazovsky was born into an Armenian family of a merchant Gevork (Konstantin) and Hripsime Ayvazyan. On July 17 (29), 1817, the priest of the Armenian church in the city of Feodosia made a record that Konstantin (Gevorg) Aivazovsky and his wife Hripsime were born "Hovhannes, the son of Gevork Ayvazyan." Aivazovsky's ancestors were from Armenians who moved to Galicia from Western Armenia in the 18th century. The artist's grandfather's name was Grigor Ayvazyan, and his grandmother was Ashkhen. It is known that his relatives owned large landed property in the Lvov region, but no documents more accurately describing the origin of Aivazovsky have been preserved. His father Konstantin (Gevorg) and after moving to Feodosia wrote a surname in the Polish manner: "Gayvazovsky" (the surname is a Polonized form of the Armenian surname Ayvazyan). Aivazovsky himself in his autobiography says about his father, that due to a quarrel with his brothers in his youth, he moved from Galicia to the Danubian principalities (Moldavia, Wallachia), where he engaged in trade, and from there to Feodosia.
Some lifetime publications dedicated to Aivazovsky convey, from his words, a family tradition that there were Turks among his ancestors. According to these publications, the artist’s late father told him that the artist’s great-grandfather (according to Bludova, on the female line) was the son of a Turkish military leader and, as a child, during the capture of Azov by Russian troops (1696), was saved from death by a certain Armenian who baptized and adopted (option - a soldier).
After the death of the artist (in 1901), his biographer N. N. Kuzmin told the same story in his book, but about the artist’s father, referring to an unnamed document in Aivazovsky’s archive; however, no evidence exists for the veracity of this legend.
The artist's father, Konstantin Grigoryevich Aivazovsky (1771-1841), after moving to Feodosia, married a local Armenian woman Hripsima (1784-1860), and from this marriage three daughters and two sons were born - Hovhannes (Ivan) and Sargis (later in monasticism - Gabriel) . Initially, Aivazovsky's business was successful, but during the plague of 1812 he went bankrupt.
Ivan Aivazovsky from childhood discovered in himself artistic and musical abilities; in particular, he taught himself to play the violin. Theodosian architect Yakov Khristianovich Kokh, who was the first to pay attention to the artistic abilities of the boy, gave him the first lessons in craftsmanship. Yakov Khristianovich also helped the young Aivazovsky in every possible way, periodically giving him pencils, paper, and paints. He also recommended paying attention to the young talent of the Feodosia mayor Alexander Ivanovich Kaznacheev. After graduating from the Feodosia district school, Aivazovsky was enrolled in the Simferopol gymnasium with the help of Kaznacheev, who at that time was already an admirer of the talent of the future artist. Then Aivazovsky was admitted at public expense to the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg.
Aivazovsky arrived in Petersburg on August 28, 1833. Initially, he studied in the landscape class with Maxim Vorobyov. In 1835, for the landscapes "View of the seaside in the vicinity of St. Petersburg" and "Study of air over the sea" he received a silver medal and was assigned as an assistant to the fashionable French marine painter Philip Tanner. Studying with Tanner, Aivazovsky, despite the latter's prohibition to work independently, continued to paint landscapes and presented five paintings at the autumn exhibition of the Academy of Arts in 1836. Aivazovsky's works received favorable reviews from critics. Tanner complained about Aivazovsky to Nicholas I, and by order of the Tsar, all of Aivazovsky's paintings were removed from the exhibition. The artist was forgiven only six months later and assigned to the class of battle painting to Professor Alexander Ivanovich Sauerweid to study naval military painting. After studying in Sauerweid's class for only a few months, in September 1837 Aivazovsky received the Big Gold Medal for the painting Calm. In view of Aivazovsky's special success in teaching, an unusual decision was made for the academy - to release Aivazovsky from the academy two years ahead of schedule and send him to the Crimea for these two years for independent work, and after that - on a business trip abroad for six years.
This is part of a Wikipedia article used under the CC-BY-SA license. Full text of the article here →
Speaking of Aivazovsky, we immediately imagine seascapes.
It seems that you can find in the paintings of Aivazovsky? One continuous sea with ships. There is an opinion that it is enough to look at 5-7 of his paintings and get to know the whole of Aivazovsky.
I will prove that it is not. That Aivazovsky cannot be called a boring landscape painter.
He was a romantic artist. His paintings are dramatic shipwrecks, sea battles. The stories are very entertaining to watch.
There are also lunar paths, smoking volcanoes, trees up to the sky. All that amazes with its beauty.
In addition, Aivazovsky painted not only seascapes. Among his works you will find an image of lions killing a camel. Portrait of a beautiful woman. And even Pushkin.
Aivazovsky was inventive. Didn't like to repeat myself. The task seems to be impossible. Considering that in his entire life he created 6,000 works!
Here are just 7 topics of his role. Which reveal all the diversity of his work.
All reproductions in the article are clickable.
1. Storm and shipwreck
Ninth shaft. 1850
Ivan Aivazovsky. Ninth shaft. 1850, St. Petersburg. wikipedia.org 2. The greatness of the Russian fleet
Chesme battle. 1848
Ivan Aivazovsky. Chesme battle. 1848 Art Gallery. I.K. Aivazovsky, Feodosia. wikipedia.org “Chesme battle” is one of the most famous paintings in the battle genre.
Very bright fire. As if the picture is actually on fire. Chips fly from the explosion. Sailors are trying to escape in the water.
Everything is so alive and believable. As if the artist was present at this battle.
This naval battle between Russian and Turkish ships took place in 1770. So Aivazovsky did not see him live. He had not yet been born at that time. But this does not mean that he did not see the battles at all.
Even as I saw it. After all, he was the official artist of the Navy. He was given access to all ships. Including during real hostilities.
He was not afraid of bullets. Even ignored the risk to life. He left the line of fire only by order of the commander-in-chief.
Aivazovsky knew the equipment of the ships very well. Even if the ship is depicted far away, the details on it are still carefully prescribed.
Ivan Aivazovsky. Review of the Black Sea Fleet in 1849 1886 Central Naval Museum, St. Petersburg 3. Night sea
Bay of Naples on a moonlit night. 1842
Ivan Aivazovsky. Bay of Naples on a moonlit night. 1842 Feodosia Art Gallery. I.K. Aivazovsky, Feodosia, Crimea Aivazovsky's night landscapes were especially good. “The Gulf of Naples on a moonlit night” is one of the first such works.
A very bright but distant moon. Moon path. Smoky Vesuvius. Tall trees in the foreground. Monastery. Two monks in white.
The moon was so bright that some visitors seriously looked behind the picture. Hoping to find a lit candle there. Which illuminates the picture from behind.
The landscape was painted during a long tour of Europe. At first, the Academy of Arts sent him there. Aivazovsky's paintings sold well in every country. So he could afford to extend the journey. There were 130 visas in his international passport upon his return to Russia!
The moon often appeared in Aivazovsky's paintings. But he could portray the incredible night light even without the moon. As in the picture “View from the Baydar Gates”.
Ivan Aivazovsky. View from the Baydar Gates, Black Sea. 19th century. Private collection The picture shows reflected moonlight. We see almost every pebble in the mountains. Fantastic spectacle. Telling about the most beautiful views of nature on our planet.
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4. Religion and the sea
Chaos or Creation of the world. 1841
Ivan Aivazovsky. Chaos. 1841 Vatican Museums The painting "Chaos" is the most famous religious work of Aivazovsky. The lunar path makes its way through the dark waves. But in the sky is not just the moon, but the silhouette of God with outstretched arms. Very effective.
This painting was purchased by Pope Gregory XVI. This incident glorified Aivazovsky even more.
Before making a deal, the commission of the Vatican carefully studied the picture. But I did not find anything in it that could interfere with the purchase.
Nikolai Gogol personally congratulated Aivazovsky “... Vanya, you came ... to Rome and immediately raised chaos in the Vatican!”
I don’t know why the artist called the picture “Chaos”. Everything on it is harmonious and solemn. Aivazovsky has much more chaotic paintings.
Look at another religious painting, The Deluge. Figures of dying people and animals mixed with waves and splashes. That's where the real chaos is. Although very pompous.
Unexpected, right? Try to find a drowning elephant in this chaos (the picture is clickable).
Ivan Aivazovsky. Global flood. 1864 State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg. biblia-zhivopis.ru 5. Sea and Pushkin
Pushkin in the Crimea near the Gurzuf rocks. 1880
Ivan Aivazovsky. Pushkin in the Crimea near the Gurzuf rocks. 1880 Odessa Art Museum Sometimes Aivazovsky inscribed an important person in his seascapes. About a dozen times he did this with Pushkin.
True, on most of them the figure of the poet is small. Facial features are barely visible. He is recognizable only by his characteristic sideburns. As, for example, in the painting “Pushkin in the Crimea…”
Aivazovsky was a romantic artist. For whom nature is always greater than man. No matter how great this person is. Hence the “small” Pushkin, Napoleon or Peter I.
But there is one exception. In the painting “Pushkin's Farewell to the Sea”, the figure of the poet is larger.
Ivan Aivazovsky (co-authored with I. Repin). Pushkin's farewell to the sea. 1877 All-Russian Museum of A.S. Pushkin, St. Petersburg. wikipedia.org But this picture can hardly be called an exception. Because Pushkin was written by ... Ilya Repin.
Aivazovsky asked him about this. The famous marine painter admitted that Repin was much better at portraits. And he didn’t even take offense at criticism from him.
Once Repin noticed that Aivazovsky's figures were illuminated by the sun from both sides. And that it is contrary to nature. To which Aivazovsky, not at all offended, replied, “Ah, Ilya Efimovich, what a pedant you are.”
Interestingly, they agreed in advance that the work would be signed only by the name of Aivazovsky? I think Repin did not mind. Judging by how modestly he assessed his work: “Aivazovsky wrote the Marvelous Sea ... And I was honored to paint a figure there.”
6. Just the sea.
Among the waves. 1898
Ivan Aivazovsky. Among the waves. 1898 Feodosia Art Gallery. I.K. Aivazovsky, Feodosia, Crimea. izi.travel “Among the Waves” is the largest painting by Aivazovsky. 285 by 429 cm. How much do you think the artist painted it? Some years? Long months?
10 days! And this at the age of 80! True, Aivazovsky almost paid with his health for this work.
To write the upper part, he climbed onto a wooden platform. But one day he forgot himself and began to move backwards in order to evaluate what was written. He flew down ... Fortunately, a servant managed to pick him up. Otherwise, injury would not have been avoided.
“Among the Waves” is a very realistic picture. There is no too bright moon here. Just a wide beam. There are no spectacularly listing ships either ... Although no .. There was still one boat.
When Aivazovsky showed his creation to his relatives, one of his sons-in-law, a ship engineer, spoke out. He was surprised how this fragile boat-shell keeps on the waves.
Aivazovsky came out angry. The next day, the boat in the picture disappeared. The artist painted it mercilessly.
He has another similar job. Black Sea. Only dark waves. Small storm. There is also a sailboat here. Do you see him? (The picture is clickable).
Ivan Aivazovsky. Black Sea. 1881, Moscow. wikipedia.org 7. Unexpected Aivazovsky. 3 lions and one portrait
Ivan Aivazovsky. Lions in the desert. 1874 Private collection Three lions killing a camel. Didn't expect this from a marine painter? It would seem, not at all in Aivazovsky's way. But take a look.
Isn't he in a similar element here? Endless desert instead of the sea. Camel killed by lions. It is like a sunken ship under the onslaught of ferocious waves. Only the color scheme is different. Not blue, but yellow.
Aivazovsky also painted portraits. True, among them there are no masterpieces. They were more memoirs. The most famous among them is the portrait of the second wife.
Ivan Aivazovsky. Portrait of the artist's wife. 1894 Feodosia Art Gallery, Feodosia, Crimea. wikipedia.org This portrait was painted when the artist was over 70. The age difference with his second wife was 40 years. Their marriage lasted 18 years.
A beautiful, humble woman. Who, after the death of her husband, wanted only solitude. She will spend another 45 years of her life all alone.
Once, in the first years of study at the Academy, Aivazovsky brought his drawing. The teachers were amazed.
Ivan Aivazovsky. Betrayal of Judas. 1834 State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. They were sure that Aivazovsky did not draw it himself. And if he did, then he made a copy from the work of some master.
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Ivan Aivazovsky. Aul Gunib in Dagestan.
View from the east side.
1867. Oil on canvas.
In 1868 Aivazovsky undertook a journey to the Caucasus. He painted the foothills of the Caucasus with a pearl chain of snowy mountains on the horizon, panoramas of mountain ranges stretching into the distance like petrified waves, the Darial Gorge and the village of Gunib, lost among the rocky mountains, the last nest of Shamil. In Armenia, he painted Lake Sevan and the Ararat Valley. He created several beautiful paintings depicting the Caucasus Mountains from the eastern coast of the Black Sea.
Ivan Aivazovsky and Ilya Repin. Pushkin by the sea
(Pushkin's farewell to the Black Sea).
1887. Oil on canvas.
Central Pushkin Museum. Pushkin, Russia.
From a series of great masters of the brush, a master appeared who devoted his entire talent to the "free element", as Pushkin dubbed the sea, and became its devoted singer. This master was Ivan Aivazovsky.
At one of the academic exhibitions in St. Petersburg (1836), two artists met - a pen artist and a brush artist. Acquaintance with Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin made an indelible impression on the young Aivazovsky. “Since then, the poet I already loved has become the subject of my thoughts, inspiration and long conversations and stories about him,” the artist recalled. Pushkin spoke with great approval of the work of a talented student of the Academy of Arts.
Aivazovsky worshiped the talent of the greatest Russian poet all his life, dedicating a whole cycle of paintings to him later (around 1880). In them, he combined the poetry of the sea with the image of the poet.
The painting Farewell to the Black Sea by A.S. Pushkin was created in the year of the fiftieth anniversary of the death of A.S. Pushkin. Aivazovsky worked on this picture in collaboration with Ilya Efimovich Repin. Repin painted the figure of Pushkin in this picture, Aivazovsky painted the landscape background. This is one of the best paintings on the Pushkin theme.
In the same year, another painting by Pushkin was painted on the Black Sea coast. Later, in 1899, Aivazovsky painted a picture of Pushkin in the Crimea near the Gurzuf rocks.
Ivan Aivazovsky. Pushkin on the Black Sea coast.
1887. Oil on canvas.
Nikolaev Art Museum
them. V. Vereshchagin, Russia.
At one of the academic exhibitions in St. Petersburg (1836), two artists met - a pen artist and a brush artist. Acquaintance with Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin made an indelible impression on the young Aivazovsky. “Since then, the poet I already loved has become the subject of my thoughts, inspiration and long conversations and stories about him,” the artist recalled. Pushkin spoke with great approval of the work of a talented student of the Academy of Arts.
Aivazovsky worshiped the talent of the greatest Russian poet all his life, dedicating a whole cycle of paintings to him later (around 1880). In them, he combined the poetry of the sea with the image of the poet. The painting Pushkin on the Black Sea was created in the year of the fiftieth anniversary of the death of A.S. Pushkin. In the same year, another was written - one of the best paintings on the Pushkin theme - A.S. Pushkin's Farewell to the Black Sea, on which I.K. Aivazovsky worked in collaboration with I.E. Repin. (Repin painted the figure of Pushkin in this picture, Aivazovsky painted the landscape background).
Later, in 1899, Aivazovsky painted a picture of Pushkin in the Crimea near the Gurzuf rocks.
Ivan Aivazovsky. Pushkin in the Crimea near the Gurzuf rocks.
1899. Oil on canvas.
Odessa Art Museum, Odessa, Ukraine.
Aivazovsky had his own established system of creative work. “A painter who only copies nature,” he said, “becomes her slave ... The movements of the living elements are elusive for the brush: writing lightning, a gust of wind, a splash of a wave is unthinkable from nature ... An artist must memorize them ... The plot of the paintings is formed in my memory, as at the poet; having made a sketch on a piece of paper, I get to work and until then I do not leave the canvas until I express myself on it with a brush ... "
The comparison of the methods of work of the artist and the poet is not accidental here. The poetry of A.S. Pushkin had a great influence on the formation of Aivazovsky’s work, therefore Pushkin’s stanzas often appear in our memory before Aivazovsky’s paintings. The creative imagination of Aivazovsky in the process of work was not constrained by anything. Creating his works, he relied only on his truly extraordinary visual memory and poetic imagination.
Aivazovsky worshiped the talent of the greatest Russian poet all his life, dedicating a whole cycle of paintings to him later (around 1880). The picture of Pushkin in the Crimea near the Gurzuf rocks was painted in 1899, and before that, in 1887, in the year of the fiftieth anniversary of the death of A. S. Pushkin, two wonderful paintings of Pushkin on the Black Sea coast and A. S. Pushkin’s Farewell were created with the Black Sea.
Ivan Aivazovsky. Rainbow.
1873. Oil on canvas.
In 1873, Aivazovsky created the outstanding painting Rainbow. In the plot of this picture - a storm at sea and a ship dying near a rocky shore - there is nothing unusual for Aivazovsky's work. But its colorful range, picturesque execution was a completely new phenomenon in Russian painting of the seventies. Depicting this storm, Aivazovsky showed it as if he himself was among the raging waves. A hurricane blows the mist off their crests. As if through a rushing whirlwind, the silhouette of a sinking ship and the indistinct outlines of a rocky shore are barely visible.
The clouds in the sky dissolved into a transparent wet shroud. Through this chaos, a stream of sunlight made its way, laying down like a rainbow on the water, giving the color of the picture a multi-colored coloring. The whole picture is written in the finest shades of blue, green, pink and purple colors. The same tones, slightly enhanced in color, convey the rainbow itself. It flickers with a barely perceptible mirage. From this, the rainbow acquired that transparency, softness and purity of color, which always delights and enchants us in nature. The painting "Rainbow" was a new, higher level in the work of Aivazovsky.
Regarding one of these paintings by Aivazovsky F.M. Dostoevsky wrote: "The storm ... of Mr. Aivazovsky ... is amazingly good, like all his storms, and here he is a master - without rivals ... There is rapture in his storm, there is that eternal beauty that amazes the viewer in a living, real storm ..."
Ivan Aivazovsky. Fishermen on the seashore.
1852. Oil on canvas.
"The sea is my life," said the artist. He had the ability to convey the movement and breath of the sea.
Aivazovsky loved the sea since childhood and managed to create a truthful and poetic image of the boundless elements, the romantic perception of which he always remained true to.
The master was distinguished by unusual pictorial thinking. On the canvas, the artist creates bright combinations that amaze with their magnificent decorative sound. You perceive such works as a symphony of colors, as a song to beauty. "If I lived another three hundred years," the artist said, "I would always find something new in the sea."
Often in the paintings of Aivazovsky you can see people admiring the majestic beauty of nature. The artist sees in man an integral part of the universe. His "fictional" romantic characters are self-portraits in their own way.
The artist discovered his method of drawing from memory, even without sketches, limiting himself to only cursory pencil sketches. Justifying this method, the artist said: "The movements of the living elements are elusive for the brush: writing lightning, a gust of wind, a splash of a wave is unthinkable from nature."
As a child, he played on the shores of his native Feodosia, and from childhood, the emerald game of the Black Sea surf sunk into his soul. Subsequently, no matter how much he painted any seas, he still got clear green water with purple laces of foam, characteristic of his native Euxine Pontus. The most vivid impressions were connected with the sea; probably that's why he devoted all his work to the image of the sea. With equal power, he could convey the brilliance of the sun's rays sparkling on the water, the transparency of the sea depth and the snow-white foam of the waves.
The works of Aivazovsky stood out among the works of contemporary painters for their coloristic qualities. In the 1840s, during an exhibition in Berlin, a reviewer of a local newspaper explained the increased sound of color in the works of the Russian artist by the fact that he was deaf and mute, and this shortcoming was compensated by heightened vision.
Strict critic I.N. Kramskoy wrote to P. M. Tretyakov: "Aivazovsky probably has the secret of composing paints, and even the paints themselves are secret; I have not seen such bright and pure tones even on the shelves of Muscat shops."
Aivazovsky was influenced by the Dutch marine painters of the 17th century, came to the "watercolor" technique of painting, when the color is superimposed on the canvas in thin overlapping layers. This made it possible to transmit the most insignificant color tonal gradations.
Aivazovsky began to paint a picture, depicting the sky, or as he called it after his teacher at the Academy of Arts M. N. Vorobyov - air. Whatever the size of the canvas, Aivazovsky wrote "air" in one session, even if it stretched up to 12 hours in a row. It was with such a titanic effort that the transmission of the airiness and integrity of the color scheme of the sky was achieved. The desire to complete the picture as quickly as possible was dictated by the desire not to lose the unity of the mood of the motive, to convey to the viewer a stopped moment from the life of a moving sea element. The water in his paintings is an endless ocean, not stormy, but swaying, harsh, endless. And the sky, if possible, even more infinite.
“The plot of the picture,” the artist said, “is formed in my memory, like the plot of a poem by a poet; having made a sketch on a piece of paper, I get to work and do not leave the canvas until I express myself on it with my brush.”
Speaking about his paintings, Aivazovsky remarked: "Those paintings in which the main force is the light of the sun ... must be considered the best."
Azure sea:
1843.
Canvas, oil.
Fishermen on the seashore.
1852. Oil on canvas.
National Gallery of Armenia, Yerevan, Armenia.
Calm sea
1863. Oil on canvas.
National Gallery of Armenia, Yerevan, Armenia.
Ivan Aivazovsky. Sinop battle. The night after the battle.
1853. Oil on canvas.
Central Naval Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.
A special place in the legacy of Aivazovsky is occupied by works dedicated to the exploits of the Russian fleet, which constituted its original historical chronicle, starting from the battles of the time of Peter I and ending with the contemporary events of the Crimean War of 1853-1856 and the Russian-Turkish 1877-1878 for the liberation of the Balkans. Since 1844, Aivazovsky was a painter of the Main Naval Staff.
November 18, 1853, during the Crimean War of 1853-1856, a naval battle took place between the Russian and Turkish squadrons in the Sinop Bay. The Turkish squadron of Osman Pasha left Constantinople for a landing operation in the Sukhum-Kale region and made a stop in the Sinop Bay. The Russian Black Sea Fleet had the task of preventing the active actions of the enemy. A squadron under the command of Vice-Admiral P.S. Nakhimov (3 battleships) during cruising duty discovered the Turkish squadron and blocked it in the bay. Help was requested from Sevastopol. By the time of the battle, the Russian squadron had 6 battleships and 2 frigates, and the Turkish squadron had 7 frigates, 3 corvettes, 2 steam frigates, 2 brigs, 2 transports. The Russians had 720 guns, and the Turks - 510. As a result of the battle, which lasted 4 hours, the entire Turkish fleet (with the exception of the Taif steamer) was destroyed. The Turks lost more than 3 thousand people killed and drowned, about 200 people. were captured (including the commander of the fleet). The Russians lost 37 people. killed and 235 wounded. With the victory in the Sinop Bay, the Russian fleet gained complete dominance in the Black Sea and thwarted the plans for the landing of the Turks in the Caucasus.
As soon as the rumor about the Battle of Sinop reached Aivazovsky, he immediately went to Sevastopol, asked the participants in the battle about all the circumstances of the case. Soon, two paintings by Aivazovsky were exhibited in Sevastopol, depicting the Sinop battle at night and during the day. These were the paintings of the Naval Battle of Sinop on November 18, 1853 and the Battle of Sinop. The night after the battle.
The exhibition was visited by Admiral Nakhimov; highly appreciating the work of Aivazovsky, especially the picture of the Battle of Sinop. The night after the battle. He said: "The picture is extremely well done."
Having visited the besieged Sevastopol, Aivazovsky also painted a number of paintings dedicated to the heroic defense of the city.
Ivan Aivazovsky. Calm sea.
1863. Oil on canvas.
National Gallery of Armenia, Yerevan, Armenia.
The sea was his element. Only he was opened the soul of the artist. Each time standing at the easel, Aivazovsky gave free rein to his imagination. And the canvas embodied exactly what he saw in advance with his inner eye.
Thus, Aivazovsky entered contemporary art, guided by his own laws of artistic worldview. The artistic thinking of the master is decorative; it is due to his childhood, his blood, his lineage. Decorativeness does not interfere at all, but contributes to Aivazovsky in his precise emotional characteristics of the depicted. The perfection of the result is achieved by the virtuosity of the most extraordinary tonal nuances. Here he has no equal, which is why he was compared with Paganini. Aivazovsky - maestro of tone. The canons of the European school assimilated by him are superimposed on his natural, purely national decorative flair. This unity of the two principles allows the artist to achieve such a convincing saturation of the light-air atmosphere, and a melodious color harmony. Perhaps it is precisely in the uniqueness of such a merger that the magical appeal of his paintings lies.
Ivan Aivazovsky. Among the waves.
1898. Oil on canvas.
Aivazovsky Art Gallery, Feodosiya, Ukraine.
In continuous communication with the sea - a symbol of freedom, space - a long and glorious life of the master passed. And the sea, sometimes calm, sometimes turbulent or stormy, generously gave him an inexhaustible wealth of impressions. Aivazovsky painted the picture Among the Waves, which was the pinnacle of his work, when he was 80 years old.
“Above the abyss, gray furious waves rush about. They are immense, they rush upward in anger, but black, lead clouds, driven by a storm wind, hang over the abyss, and here, as in an ominous hellish cauldron, the elements rule. The sea is bubbling, bubbling, foaming. Shaft crests sparkle. Not a single living soul, even a free bird, dares to see the rampant storm... Deserted...
Only a great artist could see and remember this truly planetary moment when you believe in the primordial existence of our Earth. And through the roar and roar of the storm, a ray of sunshine breaks through with a quiet melody of joy, and somewhere in the distance a narrow strip of light glimmers ”(I.V. Dolgopolov).
The artist depicted a raging element - a stormy sky and a stormy sea covered with waves, as if boiling in collision with one another. He abandoned the usual details in his paintings in the form of fragments of masts and dying ships lost in the boundless sea. He knew many ways to dramatize the plots of his paintings, but did not resort to any of them while working on this work. Among the waves, as it were, the Black Sea continues to reveal in time the content of the picture: if in one case an agitated sea is depicted, in the other it is already raging, at the moment of the highest formidable state of the sea element. The mastery of the painting Among the waves is the fruit of a long and hard work of the artist's entire life. Work on it proceeded quickly and easily. Obedient to the hand of the artist, the brush sculpted exactly the shape that the artist wanted, and laid the paint on the canvas in the way that the experience of skill and the instinct of a great artist, who did not correct the brushstroke once put, prompted him.
Apparently, Aivazovsky himself was aware that the painting Among the Waves is much higher in terms of execution of all previous works of recent years. Despite the fact that after its creation he worked for another two years, arranged exhibitions of his works in Moscow, London and St. Petersburg, he did not take this picture out of Feodosia, he bequeathed it, along with other works that were in his art gallery, to his native city of Feodosia.
Until old age, until the last days of his life, Aivazovsky was full of new ideas that excited him as if he were not an eighty-year-old highly experienced master who painted six thousand paintings, but a young, novice artist who had just embarked on the path of art. For the lively active nature of the artist and the preserved unblunted feelings, his answer to the question of one of his friends is characteristic: which of all the paintings painted by the master himself considers the best. “The one,” Aivazovsky answered without hesitation, “that stands on the easel in the workshop, which I began to paint today ...”
In his correspondence of recent years there are lines that speak of the deep excitement that accompanied his work. At the end of a large business letter in 1894, there are these words: "Forgive me for writing on pieces (of paper). I am painting a big picture and am terribly worried." In another letter (1899): "I have written a lot this year. 82 years make me hurry ..." He was at the age when he was clearly aware that his time was running out, but he continued to work with ever-increasing energy.
Ivan Aivazovsky. Sinking ship.
1854. Papier pellet, graphite pencil, colored pencil, scratched.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.
Speaking about the work of Aivazovsky, one cannot help but dwell on the great graphic heritage left by the master.
One of the best graphic works of the artist is the picture of the sinking ship.
During his long life, Aivazovsky made a number of trips: he visited Italy, Paris and other European cities several times, worked in the Caucasus, sailed to the shores of Asia Minor, was in Egypt, and at the end of his life, in 1898, made a long journey to America . During sea voyages, he enriched his observations, and drawings accumulated in his folders.
Aivazovsky always painted a lot and willingly. His drawings are of great interest both in terms of their artistic execution and for understanding the artist's creative method. Among pencil drawings, works dating back to the forties, by the time of his academic trip of 1840-1844 and sailing off the coast of Asia Minor and the Archipelago in the summer of 1845, stand out for their mature skill.
In the 1840s, Aivazovsky worked extensively in southern Russia, mainly in the Crimea. There he created a graphic series of sea views in sepia technique. The artist made a light sketch of the landscape with a graphite pencil and then painted in sepia, the brownish color of which varied subtly from saturated to light, completely transparent. To convey the brilliance of the water surface or sea foam, the artist often used whitewash or scratched the top layer of specially primed paper, which created an additional light effect. One of these works View of the city of Nikolaev is in the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.
The drawings of this pore are harmonious in terms of the compositional distribution of masses and are distinguished by a strict elaboration of details. The large size of the sheet and graphic completeness speak of the great importance that Aivazovsky attached to drawings made from nature. These were mostly images of coastal cities. With sharp hard graphite, Aivazovsky painted city buildings clinging to the ledges of mountains, receding into the distance, or individual buildings he liked, composing them into landscapes. Using the simplest graphic means - a line, almost without using chiaroscuro, he achieved the finest effects and accurate transmission of volume and space. The drawings he made during his travels always helped him in his creative work. In his youth, he often used drawings to compose paintings without any changes. Later, he freely processed them, and often they served him only as the first impetus for the implementation of creative ideas. The second half of Aivazovsky's life includes a large number of drawings made in a free, broad manner. In the last period of his creative work, when Aivazovsky made sketches of his travels, he began to draw freely, reproducing with a line all the curves of the form, often barely touching the paper with a soft pencil. His drawings, having lost their former graphic rigor and distinctness, acquired new pictorial qualities.
As Aivazovsky's creative method crystallized and vast creative experience and skill accumulated, a noticeable shift took place in the process of the artist's work, which affected his preparatory drawings. Now he creates a sketch of the future work from his imagination, and not from a natural drawing, as he did in the early period of creativity. Not always, of course, Aivazovsky was immediately satisfied with the solution found in the sketch. There are three versions of the sketch for his latest painting "Explosion of the ship". He strove for the best composition solution even in the drawing format: two drawings were made in a horizontal rectangle and one in a vertical one. All three are made with a cursory stroke, conveying the scheme of the composition. Such drawings, as it were, illustrate the words of Aivazovsky related to the method of his work: "Having sketched a plan of the picture I conceived with a pencil on a piece of paper, I set to work and, so to speak, give myself to it with all my heart." Aivazovsky's graphics enrich and expand our familiar understanding of his work and his peculiar method of work. For graphic works, Aivazovsky used a variety of materials and techniques.
The sixties include a number of finely painted watercolors, made in one color - sepia. Using usually a light filling of the sky with highly diluted paint, barely outlining the clouds, slightly touching the water, Aivazovsky laid out the foreground widely, in a dark tone, painted the mountains of the background and painted a boat or ship on the water in a deep sepia tone. With such simple means, he sometimes conveyed all the charm of a bright sunny day on the sea, the rolling of a transparent wave on the shore, the radiance of light clouds over the deep sea distance. In terms of the height of skill and subtlety of the transmitted state of nature, such sepia by Aivazovsky go far beyond the usual idea of watercolor sketches.
In 1860, Aivazovsky painted this kind of beautiful sepia "The Sea after the Storm." Aivazovsky was apparently satisfied with this watercolor, as he sent it as a gift to P.M. Tretyakov. Aivazovsky widely used coated paper, drawing on which he achieved virtuoso skill. These drawings include "The Tempest", created in 1855. The drawing was made on paper, tinted in the upper part with warm pink, and in the lower part with steel gray. With various methods of scratching the tinted chalk layer, Aivazovsky well conveyed the foam on the crests of the wave and the glare on the water. Aivazovsky also masterfully drew with pen and ink.
Ivan Aivazovsky. Chaos. World creation.
1841. Oil on paper.
Museum of the Armenian Congregation of Mkhitarists.
Island of St. Lazarus, Venice.
After graduating with a gold medal of the first degree, Aivazovsky received the right to travel abroad as a pensioner of the academy. And in 1840 he left for Italy.
The artist worked in Italy with great enthusiasm and created about fifty large paintings here. Exhibited in Naples and Rome, they caused a real stir and glorified the young painter. Critics wrote that no one had ever portrayed light, air and water so vividly and authentically.
Painting Chaos. World creation. Aivazovsky was honored to enter the permanent exhibition of the Vatican Museum. Pope Gregory XVI awarded the artist a gold medal. On this occasion, Gogol jokingly said to the artist: "Your" Chaos "raised chaos in the Vatican."
The battle of Chesma is one of the most glorious and heroic pages in the history of the Russian fleet. Aivazovsky was not, and could not be, a witness to the event that took place on the night of June 26, 1770. But how convincingly and authentically he reproduced on his canvas the picture of a naval battle. Ships explode and burn, fragments of masts fly up to the sky, flames rise, and scarlet-gray smokes mix with clouds through which the moon looks at what is happening. Its cold and calm light only emphasizes the hellish mixture of fire and water in the sea. It seems that the artist himself, when creating a picture, experienced the rapture of the battle, where the Russian sailors won a brilliant victory.
1848. Oil on canvas.
Aivazovsky Art Gallery, Feodosiya, Ukraine.
Therefore, despite the fierceness of the battle, the picture leaves a major impression and resembles a grandiose fireworks display. The plot for this work was an episode of the Russian-Turkish war of 1768-1774. For decades, Russia has waged wars with Turkey for possession of the Black and Mediterranean Seas. Two Russian squadrons that left Kronstadt, after a long transition across the Baltic, passed the English Channel, rounded the shores of France and Portugal, passed Gibraltar and entered the Mediterranean Sea. Here they met with the Turkish fleet, which was then considered the strongest in the world. After several military skirmishes, the Turkish raft took refuge in the Chesme Bay in a panic. Russian ships closed the exit from the bay and during the night battle almost completely burned and destroyed the Turkish fleet. On the Russian side, 11 sailors died, on the Turkish side, 10,000 people.
It was an unprecedented victory in the history of naval battles. In memory of her, a medal was knocked out, Count Alexei Orlov, who commanded the squadrons, received the title of Chesmensky, and in Tsarskoye Selo Catherine II ordered that a monument to this battle be erected - the Chesme Column. It still stands proudly in the middle of the Big Pond. Its marble trunk is completed by an allegorical sculpture - a double-headed eagle breaking a marble crescent.
A painter of the Main Naval Staff (since 1844), Aivazovsky takes part in a number of military campaigns (including the Crimean War of 1853-1856), creating many pathetic battle paintings.
Aivazovsky's painting of the forties and fifties was marked by a strong influence of the romantic traditions of K.P. Bryullov, which affected not only the skill of painting, but also the very understanding of art and the worldview of Aivazovsky. Like Bryullov, he strives to create grandiose colorful canvases that can glorify Russian art. With Bryullov, Aivazovsky is related by brilliant painting skills, virtuoso technique, speed and courage of performance. This was very clearly reflected in one of the early battle paintings Chesma Battle, written by him in 1848, dedicated to an outstanding naval battle. Aivazovsky in the same 1848 painted a picture of the Battle in the Strait of Chios, which, with the Battle of Chesme, made up a kind of pair-diptych, glorifying the victories of the Russian fleet.
After the Chesme battle took place in 1770, Orlov wrote in his report to the Admiralty College: "... Honor to the All-Russian fleet. From June 25 to June 26, the enemy fleet (we) attacked, defeated, broke, burned, let it go to heaven, into ashes turned ... and they themselves began to be dominant in the entire archipelago ... "The pathos of this report, pride in the outstanding feat of Russian sailors, the joy of the victory achieved was beautifully conveyed by Aivazovsky in his picture. At the first glance at the picture, we are seized by a feeling of joyful excitement as from a festive spectacle - a brilliant firework. And only with a detailed examination of the picture becomes clear the plot side of it. The fight is depicted at night. In the depths of the bay, burning ships of the Turkish fleet are visible, one of them at the time of the explosion. Enveloped in fire and smoke, the wreckage of the ship is flying into the air, which has turned into a huge blazing bonfire. And on the side, in the foreground, the flagship of the Russian fleet rises in a dark silhouette, to which, saluting, a boat approaches with the team of Lieutenant Ilyin, who blew up his firewall among the Turkish flotilla. And if we get closer to the picture, we will distinguish on the water the wreckage of Turkish ships with groups of sailors calling for help, and other details.
Aivazovsky was the last and most prominent representative of the romantic trend in Russian painting, and these features of his art were especially evident when he painted naval battles full of heroic pathos; they could hear that "battle music", without which the battle picture is devoid of emotional impact.
Ivan Aivazovsky. Black Sea
(A storm begins to play out on the Black Sea).
1881. Oil on canvas.
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
The artist worked tirelessly until the last days of his life. Aivazovsky's sublime, elevated emotional perception of nature was preserved until the end of his career. But in the 1870s-1880s, external showiness, increased brightness of color give way to calmer, softer ratios of colors. Storms and storms are replaced by the image of the sea in its usual state. The most successful landscapes of this time acquire psychological coloring and the inner significance of the image.
Aivazovsky was close to many Wanderers. The humanistic content of his art and brilliant craftsmanship were highly valued by Kramskoy, Repin, Stasov and Tretyakov. In their views on the social significance of art, Aivazovsky and the Wanderers had much in common. Long before the organization of traveling exhibitions, Aivazovsky began to organize exhibitions of his paintings in St. Petersburg, Moscow, as well as in many other large cities of Russia. In 1880, Aivazovsky opened the first peripheral art gallery in Russia in Feodosia.
Under the influence of the advanced Russian art of the Wanderers, realistic features appeared with special force in the work of Aivazovsky, which made his works even more expressive and meaningful. Apparently, therefore, it has become customary to consider Aivazovsky's paintings of the seventies the highest achievement in his work. Now for us it is quite clear the process of continuous growth of his skill and deepening of the content of the pictorial images of his works, which took place throughout his life.
In 1881, Aivazovsky created one of the most significant works - the picture of the Black Sea. Restrained tension and epic power excited the artist when creating such landscapes.
The painting depicts the sea on an overcast day; waves, arising at the horizon, move towards the viewer, creating by their alternation a majestic rhythm and sublime structure of the picture. It is written in a stingy, restrained color scheme that enhances its emotional impact. The picture testifies that Aivazovsky was able to see and feel the beauty of the sea element close to him, not only in external pictorial effects, but also in the barely perceptible strict rhythm of her breathing, in her clearly perceptible potential power. And, of course, in this picture he demonstrates his main gift: the ability to show the eternally moving water element permeated with light.
I. Kramskoy said about Aivazovsky's painting "The Black Sea": "This is an endless ocean, not stormy, but swaying, severe, endless. This is one of the most grandiose paintings that I know."
Wave and sky - two elements fill the entire space of the picture, somewhere far away is a small silhouette of a ship. Barely outlined with a brush, it already brings a human element to the landscape, sets the scale of the work and makes us, the viewers, accomplices of the image, empathizing not only with the elements of nature, but also with the person inside it. Moreover, the Black Sea itself is not calm. Aivazovsky called the picture "The Black Sea. A storm begins to break out on the Black Sea." Behind these words, some viewers saw in the picture the emerging revolutionary element, while others saw an emotional image that conveys emotional experiences, showing the inextricable connection between man and nature: the sea is worried, the rhythm of its waves is so accurately captured by the artist that the viewer begins to feel anxiety, "the breadth of breathing "of nature.
Sea waves, like precious stones, absorb many shades of green and blue, they can no longer be called in words. Transparent matter turns glassy before our eyes, it has frozen forever under the brush of the master. Foggy in the depths, luminous from within, it hides the underwater realm of mermaids and tritons, mysterious pearls and bizarre plants with a magical fabric.
"The Black Sea" is not the largest canvas in the artist's work, but it is the result of experiences, understanding of the beloved image of the elements and the pinnacle of Aivazovsky's skill.
