Ivan Constantinovich Aivasovsky (1817 - 1900)

The Black Sea has always been an inspiration to artists, and if there was one man who devoted his life to expressing its beauty through his brushes, it was Ivan Aivasovsky. The majority of his paintings were seascapes, distinguished by his skilful use of light to bring the waves alive.

Aivasovsky was born in 1817 in Feodosia - originally the Greek settlement of Theodosia - at the eastern end of the Crimean coast. His father was an Armenian merchant and his mother a skilled embroiderer, but at the time young Ivan was born the port was still recovering from the economic downturn caused by the plague in 1812, and the family were not at all well off. The young boy grew up in a town which was a colourful mix of Greeks, Russians, Armenians, Turks and Tatars, all trying to scratch a living and he probably had to work to help the family out from an early age. He quickly developed an aptitude for music and art, but had no money for paper and instead sketched in charcoal on the white walls of houses.

Eventually his talent came to the attention of the governor of Feodosia, A. I. Kaznacheev, who placed the boy at school in Simferopol and later successfully petitioned the Academy of Arts in St Petersburg for a place for him. Aivasovsky did well at the Academy. On completing his studies he was awarded a travelling scholarship, but with the unusual condition that he should first spend two summers in Crimea perfecting his painting from nature. This he did, and his letters at the time are full of enthusiasm for the inspiration he found in the Crimean landscape. After his two years in Crimea, Aivasovsky toured Europe and fell in love with the southern Italian coast. He produced more than 20 paintings around the Bay of Naples and the Amalfi coast, making the acquaintance of the Russian painter Ivanov, who was living in Rome at the time. Ivanov recognised his talent, commenting that "nobody here paints water like he does..."

By his late twenties Aivasovsky had already made his name as far as painting was concerned. Pope Gregory XVI bought his Chaos (the Creation of the World) for the Vatican museum. The English landscape painter Joseph Turner was so struck by his picture The Bay of Naples on a Moonlit Night that he wrote him a short poem in Italian praising its genius. When he was not yet 30 he returned to Russia to become a professor at the St Petersburg Academy, breaking his journey in Amsterdam to hold an exhibition and to be elected to the Amsterdam Academy too. Aivasovsky did not make his permanent home in St Petersburg, preferring to return to live in Feodosia where he had grown up. Here he set up his studio and founded an art school.

He made a point of only painting from memory, allowing his imagination to influence the image on canvas. Aivasovsky felt strongly that "an artist who only copies from nature becomes her slave...The motion of the living elements is too elusive for the artist's brush: it would be senseless to try to paint a flash of lightning, a gust of wind or the splash of a wave from nature... The painter must remember them... The subject of a painting takes shape in my memory like the subject of a poem takes shape in a poet's: having made a sketch on a scrap of paper I set to work and I only leave the canvas when I'm happy that my brush has expressed what is in my mind."

The gallery in Feodosia. Aivasovsky founded the gallery himself and left it to the town when he died in 1900. It has over 400 of his paintings and sketches, as well as photographs and memorabilia, and paintings by other artists such as Viloshin, Lagorio, Vessler and Bogayevsky. Some of Aivasovsky's canvasses are huge, reaching almost from floor to ceiling of the large exhibition rooms, and their size adds to the sense of the overwhelming power and beauty of the sea that they convey so effectively. Fyodor Dostoevsky, a great admirer of his painting “Storm” said "it has ecstasy, that eternal beauty which so strikes the spectator in a living, real storm".

The concept of light is all important to Aivazovskiy. The perceptive viewer will observe that while painting the waves, clouds or sky space, the artist's emphasis is on the light. In Aivazovskiy's art light is the eternal symbol for life, hope and faith.

The gallery has many of Aivasovsky's best known works, including his great masterpiece “Amid the Waves”, painted when he was 81 years old. By this time he was able to paint waves with a translucent quality which gave them extraordinary life and movement.

 

“Девятый вал”, 1850.

“Девятый вал”.

В России - это одно из любимейших произведений отечественной живописи, растиражированное в миллионах (если не миллиардах) экземпляров репродукций. Причем огромная популярность пришла к нему сразу же после его первого показа широкой публике, состоявшегося осенью 1850 года в Московском училище живописи, ваяния и зодчества. Поток людей, желавших тогда взглянуть на "Девятый вал", не иссякал, многие ходили смотреть его по несколько раз, и это чем-то напоминало случившееся шестнадцатью годами раньше паломничество к "Последнему дню Помпеи" Брюллова. Вообще, Брюллова не случайно записывают в прямые учителя Айвазовского, хотя в Академии последний посещал совсем другую мастерскую. Многое роднит этот шедевр с брюлловской "Помпеей" - обе эти картины явили собой высший расцвет романтизма в русском изобразительном искусстве. Вскоре пришли другие времена, когда "страсти роковые" перестали пользоваться популярностью, уступив место "правде жизни". Айвазовскому немало досталось от новейшей критики, но даже ее апологет, В. Стасов, неизменно признавал, что "маринист Айвазовский по рождению и по натуре своей был художник совершенно исключительный". Не однажды предпринимались попытки истолковать "Девятый вал" как политическую аллегорию. При этом вспоминалась и волна революций, в 1848 году пронесшаяся над Европой, и общее "похолодание" российской жизни в конце 1840-х годов, и безвременная смерть Белинского, с большой симпатией относившегося к творчеству Айвазовского, и итальянские события... Впрочем, все было шито белыми нитками, и автор "Девятого вала" к этим построениям, по большому счету, не имеет никакого отношения.
Он не играл в аллегорические игры, а просто был влюблен в стихию, в шторм, в бурю. Морскую бурю он - человек, всю жизнь проживший рядом с морем, - знал не понаслышке. Любопытно одно признание живописца. В 1844 году корабль, на котором он плыл из Англии в Испанию, попал в страшный шторм - после этого в европейской прессе появились сообщения о гибели к тому времени уже прославившегося художника. К счастью, эти сведения оказались ошибочными. Впрочем, поволноваться пассажирам судна действительно пришлось немало. Многие обезумели от страха - но не Айвазовский: в нем, по его собственному признанию, "страх не подавил способности воспринять и сохранить в памяти впечатление, произведенное бурею, как дивною живою картиною". "Девятый вал" представляет собой типичное романтическое противопоставление "Человека" и "Стихии". Последняя страшна своей неразумной силой, но вместе с тем прекрасна.

 

“Черное море”.

За внешним реализмом этого полотна скрывается глубочайшая метафизика. "Море" и "небо" - вот два главных его героя. Сюжет - их противоборство и единство. "Черное море" отличает какой-то неотменимый ритм, отвечающий вечному размеренному дыханию мира и внешне проявляющийся в ритмически сменяющих друг друга волнах. Художник впервые показал картину (на выставке в Академии художеств) под несколько другим - повествовательным! - названием: “На Черном море начинает разыгрываться буря”. Позже он исключил повествователъностъ, сократив название до точного и емкого “Черного моря” и подчеркнув тем самым стремление представить в картине реалистический и вместе с тем предельно обобщенный образ морской стихии. Большим поклонником этого произведения был И. Крамской - он даже включил его в собственную известную картину “Неутешное горе”, поместив за спиной героини и сделав своеобразным “зеркалом” ее душевных переживаний. У Айвазовского, отмечал Крамской, "есть вещи феноменальные - например, “Море”. Это одна из самых грандиозных картин, какие я только знаю".

 

Айвазовский И.К. “Черное море”, 1881г.

2.6. Vasilii Andreevich Tropinin: “ The Lace Maker” (1823).

Like Orest Kiprenskii, Vasilii Tropinin was one of the first Russian artists to make the transition from the calm logic and propriety of neoclassicism to the warmth and emotion of romanticism. His portrait entitled “ The Lace Maker “shows this transition simply in the choice of subject; instead of portraying a woman of the upper class and nobility, Tropinin chooses to paint a “common” woman engaged in work. As would become popular in romantic painting, an everyday subject was chosen and portrayed in an almost idealized light. However, the lace maker appears too genuine and modest to be considered over-romanticized or over-idealized.

The light coming from the upper right hand corner creates a delicate, soft chiaroscuro resembling the soft rays of sunlight illuminating the lace maker's work. The background is clear and plain, which leads the viewer to focus more fully on the young woman and her tools. Since symbols were an important part of creating and defining character in neoclassical portraits, the work tools gathered around the young woman emphasize her trade and show her in an environment that is unique to her profession. As if interrupted for a moment, she looks directly at the viewer with a smile, continuing to do her delicate work. The careful, yet unconscious positioning of her hands helps to emphasize how familiar she is with her work. By combining pictorial clarity with a feeling of sensibility, Tropinin has infused a "common" subject with dignity and grace.

Notes

chiaroscuro – распределение светотени

to infuse a subject with smth - вселить в предмет достоинство и грацию