Stunning paintings by Aivazovsky - a declaration of love to the sea

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The splendor, strength and fury of the sea has always attracted the minds and hearts of creative people: poets and artists. However, Aivazovsky's paintings became the largest and most expressive declaration of love for this stormy element.

Love for life

Ivan Konstantinovich was born on the sea coast, in Feodosia. After graduating from the gymnasium in Simferopol, the young man, obedient to the call of talent, went to St. Petersburg, to the Academy of Arts. Having completed his studies with a gold medal, the young artist traveled a lot around the world and became more and more convinced that the marine theme would become the main one for him. He was destined to become the founder of marinism in Russian painting. The artist lived all his long life on the seashore, which inspired him and revealed to him much of his mysterious life.

Masterpieces brushed by a genius

The sea of Aivazovsky's paintings presents us in different ways: it is both a mighty seething element, striking the imagination with its strength and fury, it is also a calm, gentle expanse of calm, breathing with gentle pink-gold reflections of the evening sun.

Already during the lifetime of the artist it becameit is obvious that he is a genius. More than fifty solo exhibitions, enthusiastic responses from connoisseurs reflected the indisputable gift of the Russian marine painter. Aivazovsky's paintings were willingly acquired by crowned persons.

The artist's seascapes are unspeakably poetic and romantic, at the same time they are deeply realistic works. In his first works, Aivazovsky enthusiastically draws slender warships on a glossy surface with misty crests of waves; he puts battle themes at the heart of the plot. "The Great Raid in Kronstadt", "Landing in Subashi" - canvases of that time. Later, the painter would write bright battle scenes more than once, expressive and eloquent.

Features of creativity

The best paintings by Aivazovsky are not only strikingly authentic and full of dynamics, they are also deeply philosophical. The painting "Chaos. The Creation of the World ", the young artist created in Italy, during the trip, which he was awarded for the excellent graduation from the Academy of Arts. The plot is based on scenes from the first chapter of the Bible (the Book of Genesis). A radiance appears over the boundless surface of the waters enveloped in darkness - God's Spirit illuminates and sanctifies the space, filling it with light. The dazzling white figure of the Deity seems to be opposed by a black shapeless shadow, spreading its arms in impotent fury, trying to protect the earth from the intrusion of light. But the darkness cannot stand, another moment - and it will disappear, dissipate, be defeated. Today, this work of the Russian master is kept in the collection of the Museum of the Mkhitarist Congregation in Venice. to the biblical themeAivazovsky will return twenty years later, depicting grandiose scenes of the Flood on canvas. Aivazovsky's painting with this title was purchased by Emperor Alexander II for the collection of the Winter Palace. Now it is on display at the State Russian Museum of St. Petersburg.

The picture “View of Crimea on a moonlit night” is full of extraordinary silence and endless peace. The brig "Mercury" in the picture of the same name, dedicated to the victory of the Russian fleet over Turkish ships, seems romantic and fabulous. Furious and hot is the battle of Sinop on canvas with the same name. Mysterious and unpredictable sea verses on the late canvas of the artist, called "Among the Waves".

The Ninth Wave

This famous painting by Aivazovsky is amazingly expressive and majestic. The sea on it, violent and beautiful, confronts defenseless people trying to survive on the wreckage of a shipwrecked ship.

The light of the emerging morning throws unbearably bright golden spots on the shimmering surface of the water, on which a huge wave rises - the ninth (strong Sami) wave. The element seems invincible. However, a handful of courageous people in the foreground, being the semantic center of the work, inspires confidence that life will win. Such was all the inspiring work of the artist, who created about six thousand pictorial masterpieces that adorn the expositions of many museums around the world.