IVAN KONSTANTINOVICH AIVAZOVSKY | SOLAR ECLIPSE IN FEODOSIA

Acquired by the present owners circa 1960

Renowned for his stormy seas, moonlit landscapes and sunsets, it is not surprising that Aivazovsky would have taken a keen interest in natural phenomena such as a solar eclipse. Aivazovsky’s biographer Nikolai Sobko lists a work titled The Eclipse of the Sun from 1851, which was given by the artist to the Imperial Geographical Society in St Petersburg. (G.Caffiero and I.Samarine, Seas, Cities and Dreams. The Paintings of Ivan Aivazovsky, London, 2000, p.306). In Barsamov’s list of works in Soviet collections, the same painting is titled The Eclipse of the Sun in Feodosia (Geographical Society, Leningrad) and is thought to date from 1853 (ibid., p.289). The same year Aivazovsky was made a member of the Geographical Society.

In the present work painted a quarter of a century later, Aivazovsky returns to the depiction of light effects during an eclipse. It is possible that he painted it under fresh impressions or from his memories dating back to the solar eclipse in Feodosia in the early 1850s.