Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky : Artwork

Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky, one of the masters of Russian Romantic art, was born in 1817 to an Armenian family in the city of Feodosia in Crimea in Russian empire. His introduction in the world of art was through a local architect who taught him drawing. He was admitted to the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg and joined Maxim Vorobiev's landscape class. In 1835, he won a silver medal and the French painter Philippe Tanneur appointed him as assistant. In 1837, Aivazovsky attended the battle-painting class of Alexander Sauerweid and took part in Baltic Fleet exercises in the Gulf of Finland. Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky’s artoworks deserve our closer attention, explore the paintings by Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky and know more about the artist reading up on Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky biography. 

He visited Russian Armenia in 1868 and painted Mount Ararat, the Ararat plain, and Lake Sevan. His painting style was influenced by those of classic painters like Salvator Rosa, Jacob Isaacksz van Ruisdael and Claude Lorrain. Karl Bryullov, creator of ‘The Last Day of Pompeii’ had inspired his artistic imagination greatly. In the 1840s–1850s, Aivazovsky created his best paintings, mostly epic and romantic, using a variety of colours. ‘Ninth Wave’ is considered Aivazovsky’s best creation. In his later years he used soft colours and during the last two decades of his life, he used silver colour tones. At the middle of the 19th century, Russian art had a transition from Romanticism to Realism. However, Aivazovsky remained faithful to Romanticism, which earned him numerous criticisms. His later works represent more of large scale dramatic scenes, such as ‘The Rainbow’ (1873), seascape like ‘The Bay of Naples in Early Morning’ (1897), ‘Disaster’ (1898) and urban landscape like ‘Moonlit Night on the Bosphorus’ (1894). These works by Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky are all available online for anyone to checkout, explore the works and know more about the artist going through Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky’s biography.

Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky returned to his practice of the Armenian-related paintings again in the 1880s, and he created some of the seminal work of this period including ‘Valley of Mount Ararat’ (1882), ‘Ararat’ (1887), ‘Descent of Noah from Ararat’ (1889).  During this period he created some rare portraits of notable Armenians, such as his brother Archbishop Gabriel Aivazovsky (1882), Count Mikhail Loris-Melikov (1888), Nakhichevan-on-Don Mayor Аrutyun Khalabyan and others. He also created some paintings on ancient Armenia such as ‘The Baptism of Armenians’ and ‘Oath Before the Battle of Avarayr’ (both 1892). 

The Hamidian massacres in 1894-95 of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire deeply affected Aivazovsky, and he painted a number of works on that subject such as ‘The Massacre of Armenians in Trebizond’ (1895) as well as ‘Lonely Ship’, ‘Night’ and ‘Tragedy in the Sea of Marmara’ (1897). 

During his almost 60-year career, he created around 6,000 paintings, most of which are seascapes, but he also created battle scenes, Armenian themes, and portraiture. Most of Aivazovsky's works are displayed in Russian, Ukrainian and Armenian museums and some of them are featured in private collections. Have a look at Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky’s paintings and if you like them and want to know more about the artist, check out Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky’s biography.

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