Hermitage Museum

Works from the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg:

Ivan Aivazovsky
Kaspar Friedrich
Hendrik Sorgh (detail)
Simon de Vlieger
Rockwell Kent

Ivan Aivazovsky

Ivan Aivazovsky, The Survivors, 47.5 x 64 cm

detail

Aivazovsky was a master of atmosphere. To see more works by this Armenian/Russian artist click on his name in labels.

Obscurity and Distinctness

Icebergs

Poseidon's Sea Journey
Exploding Ship

The Survivors

Amidst the Waves

Odessa

Aivazovsky created a mood of mystery and grandeur by leaving some areas of the painting obscured in mist or shadow. He knew where to add detail, and where to leave it out; where to be crisp, and where to be vague.

Ivan Aivazovsky - Armenian/Russian 1817-1900

The beauty of this work lies in the union of simplicity and complexity. The subject is really just waves (the ship and sky are almost lost) but their structure is rendered with intricate, realistic detail. Simplicity of subject matter alows the artist to concentrate on the abstract qualities of the painting.

Aivazovsky was born to an Armenian family in the Crimea (the family Russianised their name). He was renowned as a master painter of vast seascapes and tempests, Romantic subjects very much in fashion in his time. Delacroix spoke of him with reverence, and Turner considered him a genuis. Aivazovsky's depiction of mariners struggling for survival in turbulent seas has been read as symbolic of the struggle of the Armenian people, caught between warring powers, to maintain their identity.

Aivazovsky - Armenian Russian

Amid the Waves

Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky - Armenian/Russian

A Ship at Sea, 92.5 x 72.5 cm

Ivan Aivazovski (1817-1900) Armenian

Exhibition catalogue


The Wave



Orage


Amid the Waves

Aivazovsky (Aivazovski) was a master painter of tempests.

Aivazovski - Armenian/Russian

Sea Wave - Russian