Dating from 1895, Breaking Wave is a particularly successful example from Ivan Aivazovsky’s late period and shows his extraordinary talent for depicting severe weather and stormy waters. Here, a lonely ship is exposed to the forces of nature, threatened by the treacherous sea and the heavy, dark sky looming above. It is also a rare example of a painting by the artist to appear at auction which can clearly be identified in a catalogue published during the artist’s lifetime.
(Right) Fig. 2 The present work illustrated in Bulgakov, 1896.
The present work was included in Aivazovsky’s 120th solo exhibition, which opened in December 1895 in the galleries of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts in Saint Petersburg. The exhibition included over seventy paintings, nearly all of which were reproduced in the catalogue published by Feodor Bulgakov in 1896, with a full page dedicated to Breaking wave (figs 1 and 2). While the exhibition consisted of recent works painted over the past year, an astonishing feat considering that the artist was already in his late 70s, it was also a retrospective of sorts. Around thirty works, including the present lot, were maritime views and variations of some of the artist’s most successful motifs, more than forty paintings were inspired by the many travels he had undertaken since the 1840s, including by his trip to the United States in 1892/93.
Breaking Wave was exhibited and sold by Hammer Galleries in New York, and according to their label came from the personal collection of Nicholas II (fig. 3). The founder of Hammer Galleries, the American businessman and collector Armand Hammer (1898–1990) had spent much of the 1920s in Russia. There, Armand and his brother Victor were able to forge a privileged relationship with the Communist regime, which allowed them to acquire many important Russian artworks. These were then sent to the United States and sold through Hammer’s New York gallery and other venues in America. Hammer took full advantage of his access to items of Imperial provenance, and among his acquisitions were no less than thirteen of the celebrated Imperial Fabergé Eggs, which are now in the collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and other prestigious museum collections. In 1933, the New York Evening Post described Hammer’s collection as ‘[t]The largest collection of jewels and other possessions of the Romanoffs, formerly rulers of all Russia, to ever be shown in America…’1
Aivazovsky enjoyed the support of the Russian Imperial family throughout his long career. He was particularly close to Nicholas I, whose son he had accompanied on naval exercises with the Baltic Fleet in 1836. In 1844, after Aivazovsky’s return from several years abroad, Nicholas I commissioned him to paint views of Russia’s ports, and would continue to acquire paintings by the artist. Nicholas I’s successors were also admirers of Aivazovsky’s work, in particular Alexander II and Alexander III. The artist’s grandson, Alexander Pavlovich Aivazovsky, later recalled Nicholas II’s fondness and admiration for the painter in his memoirs. On 27 November 1910, Alexander, then an officer in an Imperial Dragoon regiment, was summoned to Livadia Palace near Yalta. While everyone else was assembling in the dining room, Alexander was ushered into another room where his grandfather’s paintings were hanging, and where he was received by the Emperor. ‘…I thanked him for allowing me to carry on my grandfather’s name. The Emperor told me that he was glad to be able to fulfill Aivazovsky’s last wish. He went on reminiscing about him and his great appreciation of him as an artist and as a public man… […] He took me round the room and pointed out the details of each picture in turn. He finished, ‘I loved his work and I loved him sincerely as a man.’’2
The appearance of Breaking wave offers collectors the chance to acquire a superb example of a seascape by Aivazovsky from the 1890s, which is documented in literature and was exhibited and published during the artist’s lifetime.
1 A.M. Stein, New York Evening Post, 3 January 1933.
2 A.P. Aivazovski, translated from the Russian by Michael Persse, Memoirs From The Distant Past Of His Grandfather Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovski, 1956, translated from the Russian 1994, p. 22.