The largest collection of paintings by I. K. Aivazovsky is in the art gallery of Feodosia. K. Aivazovsky is located in the art gallery of Feodosia. With Feodosia is associated with the whole life of the artist, he spent many creative years in it and bequeathed his paintings to his native city. Now there is a museum named after him.
Marinist I. K. Aivazovsky
Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky was born in 1817 in Feodosia, in the family of Armenian merchant Gevorg Ayvazyan. The Ayvazians moved here once from Poland, so the family name was written in Polish - Gaivazovsky.
He was baptised in the Church of St. Sergius. This church was built back in 1330, has survived to this day and is one of the sights of Feodosia. Aivazovsky was baptised and married here, he painted this church (unfortunately, almost nothing remains of the frescoes) and he is buried here. It is decorated with stone carvings and plates with crosses carved into the walls - khachkars.
The boy from childhood loved to draw. His talent was so bright that in 1833 he was admitted to the Imperial Academy of Arts and left Crimea to study in St Petersburg. There he immediately began to specialise in landscape painting. He studied in the landscape class of M. Vorobyov. M. Vorobyev was not only a good artist, but also a talented teacher - in his time he studied with L. Logorio, I. Shishkin, M. Klodt and others. Since 1835 Aivazovsky studied at F. Tanner. This was the most famous marinist of that time. He arrived in Russia at the personal invitation of Nicholas I, in order to create a series of paintings depicting the most important military ports of the Russian Empire. The relationship between teacher and student did not work out and the following year a scandal broke out: Aivazovsky, instead of learning, helping and being in the shadow of the great master, submitted several of his own landscapes for exhibition. The paintings were withdrawn by order of Nicholas I, and the artist was transferred to another class of painting.
In 1839 he received a diploma of graduation from the Academy and undertook a trip to Italy. Italy for Russian artists in those days was a perfect must-see. Every cultured person had to see Italian sights and paint some Italian landscapes. In those years in Italy lived N. Gogol, and they met. For four years Aivazovsky travelled around Europe. To him comes fame. About him a positive response to criticism, his paintings on religious themes bought by the Pope, he receives a medal of the Paris Academy of Arts.
Upon his return Aivazovsky becomes an official state painter at the General Naval Staff. His task is to glorify the Russian navy and write paintings of sea battles. However, he writes a lot on a variety of subjects. In the Soviet years it was not advertised, but Aivazovsky was a religious man and wrote quite a lot on biblical subjects. But even for them, he chooses themes related to water. For example, it is "Creation of the World", describing the creation of water, or "Walking on the Waters", depicting Christ walking on Lake Genisaret.
Although he specialises in the maritime southern landscape, he also has paintings devoted to the landscape of the Central Russian, as well as portraits. He travels extensively and paints classical sights: the Egyptian pyramids, Niagara Falls and others. He is ordered by royalty - for example, the Turkish sultan orders paintings with views of Constantinople and receives at his palace, Nicholas I buys his canvases. In total, during his life the artist wrote more than six thousand paintings and arranged more than a hundred exhibitions, some of which were charitable. In 1877 in the capitals and the Crimea ran an exhibition of his paintings in favour of the needy participants in the Russian-Turkish war, then there were exhibitions in favour of the Red Cross, etc.
Aivazovsky was twice married. From his first marriage he had four daughters. But they separated from his wife - she wanted a secular metropolitan life, and Aivazovsky was completely satisfied with his Theodosia.
His second wife was a young Armenian Anna Burnazyan, the widow of a Theodosia merchant. She was a beauty. The artist, who was forty years older than her, was constantly jealous. She outlived him for a very long time and died already in the Great Patriotic War in occupation.
Aivazovsky in the Crimea
Despite travelling, voyages of service and trips to the capital, the artist considers Feodosia to be his home and returns here every chance he gets. He builds his own house, buys estates in Sudak and near Feodosia. The artist is rich and famous, he donates a lot to the improvement of the city. With his participation, a library is opened here, a concert hall is built.
Aivazovsky is a member of the Odessa Society of History and Antiquities - a society that deals with the study of ancient Crimea and excavations. The second half of the 19th century - this is the time of actively conducted excavations on the territory of the entire peninsula, Aivazovsky takes part in this work. It was on his initiative in 1853, excavations begin to be carried out in his city. In Feodosia already since 1811 there is a museum of antiquities. Aivazovsky designs for him a new building in the form of an ancient temple on the mountain above the city. It was built in 1871 at his personal expense. In 1941, the building was lost.
The artist tries to preserve the memory of people significant to him. For example, according to his project in Feodosia there is a fountain in memory of the former mayor of the city A. Kaznacheyev. Kaznacheyev. It was Kaznacheyev who first noticed the young talent and promoted his training. The artist was grateful to him all his life.
In addition to the museum, the efforts of Aivazovsky appears a memorial in honour of General P. Kotlyarevsky, a hero of the Russian-Persian wars. The wounded general lived out his life in Feodosia, where he met the family of the artist.
Ivan Konstantinovich actively invests not only in the cultural development of the city. He is listened to by the military and sailors - and it was at his insistence in Feodosia significantly expanded commercial port. It becomes the largest on the peninsula. On his initiative to Dzhankoy lay railway - this was in 1892.
From the source in his estate, he conducts a water supply to Feodosia and arranges public fountain. Now we know it as Aivazovsky's fountain, it is still in operation.
Theodosia Picture Gallery
The year of the gallery's creation is considered to be 1880. Aivazovsky does a lot for the development of painting and support for young artists. First he opened an art workshop, then he organised an exhibition hall at his house - since 1845 he has had an exhibition of 49 paintings available for viewing at his home. And in 1880 he adds to the house a separate wing for the gallery.
Aivazovsky bequeaths his paintings to his native city. The museum stops working only for a few years after the revolution, when the house housed Feodosiya Chekists. But already in 1922 the building is repaired, put in order, and the museum is reopened in it. The museum staff collects numerous cultural treasures left after the revolution in Crimea. A separate exposition consisting of them is created here.
In front of the gallery they put a monument to the great artist. The author of the monument was the sculptor I. Gintsburg.
During the war, the collection of paintings did not suffer. All managed to take out in evacuation, first to Krasnodar, and then to Yerevan.
Now the museum exposition includes two buildings: Aivazovsky's house and his sister's house. In the first one the paintings of the artist himself are exhibited, in the second one there is an exhibition of Crimean marine painters of his school. This romantic painting, glorifying the beauty of Crimean nature and is characterised by a special emotional mood. To it, in addition to Aivazovsky himself, can be attributed L. Lagorio, K. Bohayevsky and others.
The exposition includes not only paintings, but also left by Aivazovsky and replenished in 1920 collection of arts and crafts.
There is a unique exhibition of one picture. It is the most mysterious painting by I. Aivazovsky - "On the Death of Alexander III". The Emperor died in 1894 in the Crimea, in Livadia Palace. And Aivazovsky begins to write a painting dedicated to his memory. The painting is a reflection of some vision of the artist, it is not realistic and partly resembles his biblical painting. In the centre is a silhouette of the Peter and Paul Fortress, and in the foreground is a bowed black figure. One cannot even understand whether it is a man or a woman, so one sees in it the grieving Empress Maria Feodorovna, or Alexander's heir, Nicholas II, and believes that the painting predicts his tragic fate. At a certain angle this face becomes male and lights up with a sinister smile - people guess in it portraits of different terrorists of this time.
Anyway, Aivazovsky himself never exhibited this picture - too strange and different from his other works it turned out. For a long time it was simply kept in the museum's storerooms, and began to be exhibited in 2000. The exhibition specially supports the mystery of the painting: it is in semi-darkness, there are no windows in this room, so in combination with the story the canvas makes the strongest emotional impression. You can get here only with an excursion group.
Interesting facts
Two grandsons of Aivazovsky, the sons of his youngest daughter Jeanne, followed in their grandfather's footsteps and became artists. Their works can also be seen in the museum.
Aivazovsky's last exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery in 2016 became the most visited exhibition in the museum's history.
It is Aivazovsky's paintings that are most often stolen - they are recognisable, there are many of them, and the robbers hope for a profitable sale.
On a side note
- Location: Feodosia, Galereinaya Street, 2.
- How to get there: by route taxis № 1, 2, 5, 6, 106 to the stop "Galereinaya".
- Official website: https://feogallery.org
- Opening hours: from 10:00 to 17:00 daily, Tuesday 10:00 to 14:00, Wednesday - day off.
- Cost: adult - 200 rubles, school - 150 rubles.
