Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky

The board appears sound. There is some lIght surface dirt and thin lines of craquelure to the sky. UV light reveals a small patch of retouching to the sea in the lower left, a small area of retouching over the second half of the signature and flecks of retouching to the sky and frame abrasions round the edges. Held in an ornate gold painted plaster frame. Unexamined out of frame.
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A quintessential symbol of man's struggle against the elements, the lighthouse was a recurrent image in the Romantic canon and the subject of some of Aivazovsky's earliest paintings, Seashore by the Lighthouse, 1839 (The State Theodosia Art Museum) and The Lighthouse of Naples, 1842 (Monastery of St. Lazarus, Venice). The crenulated towers of Genoa, Rhodes and the Turkish coast feature in paintings throughout Aivazovsky's life; the dramatic possibilities of a vertical composition were clearly an attraction – cypresses and masts are other devices used to break up the line of the horizon; but perhaps these paintings of man-made bastions withstanding the sea also acted as a counterbalance to Aivazovsky's depictions of shipwrecked survivors clinging to rocks or debris, in which it is the elements that are victorious.

 

In the offered work, a single ship leaves the clustered masts in the safety of the harbour, and like the 'rebellious' sail in Lermontov's famous 1832 poem, sets out 'in search of the storm'. The ominous dark band that stretches across the horizon contrasts with the patch of azure sky above and milky waves below; the shadow cast on the left side of the tower is set off by delicate ochre-rose light, while the tower itself holds the two halves of the composition together. The mood created by this tonal mirror image is one of uncertainty in regards to the ship's fate and reveals Aivazovsky's instinct for narrative. The red pennant which stands out against the white cloud beyond and seagulls highlighted against the pitch waves are among the pleasingly characteristic, almost signature details, which would have appealed to the growing middle classes eager to obtain the work of the internationally renowned artist.

 

In 1865, Aivazovsky attached an art school to his studio in Theodosia which was open to local and travelling artists, both professional and amateur.  In the same year he was taken on to the staff of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts.

To be included in the forthcoming catalogue of the works by Aivazovsky being prepared by Gianni Caffiero and Ivan Samarine.