Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky

Private Collection, United States, 1972

Structural Condition The canvas is lined and is attached to a newly made keyed wooden stretcher. A section of the lining canvas in the upper left of the reverse has been removed to expose a signature. There is a slight distortion in the upper right of the composition corresponding to the cut-out on the reverse. There are two small areas of distortion within this area where the original canvas has detached from the lining and the area on the left also has a small damage which has broken the canvas weave. Paint Surface The paint surface has an even varnish layer. There are several slightly raised lines of craquelure just below the upper edge. These appear stable at present. Inspection under ultra-violet light shows a heavily discoloured and opaque varnish layer. Inspection under ultra-violet light also shows two large areas below the left side of the upper edge which appear to be old restoration. There are also scattered retouchings throughout the sea including below the figures, along the lower edge and along the lower parts of the left and right edges of the composition. There may be other scattered retouchings but due to the discoloured and opaque varnish layers covering the sky it is difficult to ascertain the extent of any previous restoration work. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in fair condition having undergone restoration work in the past and would benefit from the treatment of the two areas of minor distortion mentioned above and the infilling and retouching of any areas of paint loss.
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In the late 1880s and 1890s, Aivazovsky experimented with mythological and classical subjects, often against a stormy, Romantic setting.  These so-called ‘dream’ pictures are ‘highly composed but charmingly unrealistic… They are quite guileless in their direct appeal to the viewer’s sense of poetry; their only role is to be beautiful’ (I. Samarine and G. Caffiero, Seas, Cities and Dreams, p. 247).

The present lot depicts the birth of Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of Love and Beauty. According to Greek mythology, she was born from the churning sea-foam (aphros in Greek), and became the lover of Poseidon, the subject of Aivazovsky's 1894 masterpiece Poseidon's Travel over the Sea (fig. 1). The drama unfolding in the present work is heightened by a very limited colour palette and a dramatic use of moonlight on the water. Different shades and intensities of blue contrast sharply with the bright moonlight, illuminating the figure of Aphrodite as she is drawn up by winged cupids.

The present work is included in the numbered archive of the artist's work compiled by Gianni Caffiero and Ivan Samarine.