ART and DESIGN

Great painting artists

Ivan Aïvazovski

Russian Navy Painter

Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky is a Russian painter of Armenian origin. He was born in Theodosia on July 29, 1817 and died on May 2, 1900 in the same city.
Ivan Aivazovsky received his first artistic training at the Simferopol Gymnasium, then (in 1833) he went to Saint Petersburg to complete his training at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts.
In 1837, Ivan Aivazovsky graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy with a gold medal and received help from the Academy to continue his studies. The Academy first sent him to the Black Sea for two years to paint seascapes.
Between 1840 and 1844, he traveled to Europe: Italy, France, Germany, Holland, England, Spain and finally Malta.
He was appointed in 1845, painter of the Russian navy staff. With the Russian fleet, he discovered Turkey, Greece, Egypt and America.
He was the first foreign artist to be decorated with the French Legion of Honor, then decorated by the Ottoman Sultan with the Order of Osmania, the highest honor of the Ottoman Empire.
Ivan Aivazovsky’s paintings are distinguished by the search for light and a remarkable emotional approach. Thanks to this luminous and enchanting atmosphere, the painter’s canvases are filled with reverie and emotion. He paints from memory and transcribes his sensations, without any prior study.