Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky, 1817-1900

G.Caffiero, I.Samarine, Seas, Cities and Dreams: The Paintings of Ivan Aivazovsky, London: Alexandria Press, pp.180-1, illustrated pl. 123

The canvas has been lined. There are fine lines of craquelure and crinkling in places. There is a very minor fleck of paint loss to the lower left edge, otherwise the painting is clean and ready to hang. UV light reveals small flecks of retouching scattered throughout the sky and some infilling to craquelure in places.
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Ivan Aivazovsky first visited Constantinople during a voyage along the coast of Asia minor with Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich in 1845.

The impression which the Ottoman capital made on the young Aivazovsky was a lasting and powerful one.

There is probably nowhere in the world as majestic as that city; when one is there one forgets about Naples and Venice!

 

Although he returned there only four more times during his life, he painted a view of Constantinople almost every year, working from memory. The offered lot was executed six years after his visit of 1874, when he was invited by Sultan Abdülaziz to decorate the Dolmabahçe Palace with landscapes. 1880 was also the year in which Aivazovsky opened his gallery in Theodosia.

 

Self-portraiture is exceedingly rare in Aivazovsky's repertoire, but it is not surprising that he should choose to be in a view of the one city that dominated his landscape oeuvre. Equally he seeks to hide himself in the shade of the trees, focusing the viewer's eye on the Constantinople skyline glinting in the setting sun. Such transitions of colour are a key element of the artist's work, and here also show the contrast between the bustle of the city and harbour, and the rural peace in which he chooses to sketch.