Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 11 October 1936, lot 245;

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 11 October 1996, lot 247;

Anonymous sale, Munich, Hampel, 28 March 2019, lot 421;

Where acquired.

G. Caffiero and I. Samarine, Light, Water and Sky: The Paintings of Ivan Aivazovsky, London 2012, pp. 301, cat. no. CS-1875-004, reproduced.

G. Caffiero and I. Samarine, Seas Cities and Dreams, The Paintings of Ivan Aivazovsky, London, 2000, pp. 96, 282, reproduced, plate 51.

Born into a poor Armenian family in the small Crimean port town of Feodosia, Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky grew up on the coast of the Black Sea and would later become one of the finest narrators. From his early childhood, the artist witnessed the might of the sea capturing enraged storms and furious waves which led to countless shipwrecks. The sea became his teacher and would show itself to him under all its facets, providing him with never-ending inspiration.

Following the artist’s education at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg where he graduated with a gold medal two years earlier than intended, Aivazovsky briefly traveled to Europe and upon his return, was elected to the title of full Academician and appointed official painter of the Russian Navy, a post specifically created for him with the right to wear the naval uniform. Aivazovsky was participating in numerous military maneuvers, sometimes accompanied by the tsar himself, and would perfect his unique ability to rouse the waters with his brush and ensure that his fame as one of the greatest maritime painters of his age reached far beyond the borders of the Russian Empire. His admirers and supporters included three successive Russian Emperors as well as Ottoman sultans. Aivazovsky was part of a very small group of Russian painters who enjoyed widespread recognition during his lifetime and held an unprecedented number of solo exhibitions both in Russia and abroad.

The present lot showcases the artist’s ability to render the tranquility of the sea with its moonlit reflection on rippling water, admired by the group of men enjoying tea on the pavilion pier.