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Lot Essay
A peerless maritime artist in the history of Russian art, Ivan Aivazovsky never ceased to impress viewers with his striking compositions which invariably captured the infinite power of the sea in all its incarnations.
Aivazovsky was a successful artist from a very early age. He enjoyed the patronage of three successive Tsars of Russia and was entrusted with the prestigious task of supplying seascapes for the Ottoman sultans at the Palace of Dolmabahçe, the heart of the Ottoman Empire at the time. His compelling maritime scenes were revered in Russia and abroad for their freshness and vitality, and indeed he left behind a vast oeuvre.
The present work was painted in the spring of 1889 while Aivazovsky was residing at Sheikh-Mamai, his estate in his hometown Theodosia, a short ride away from the Koktebel bay. Located on the shore of the Black Sea, Koktebel boasted picturesque mountains and infinite blue seas which greatly appealed to the artist, and which had long been popular with visitors. In The Coast of Koktebel, Crimea, Aivazovsky has skilfully encapsulated a moment just prior to the storm breaking out: the waves gain momentum before culminating in a turbulent array of white froth, the looming background mountains almost merge with the threatening skies, and the racing seagulls offer a veritable sense of the impending tempest. In tender contrast, two wayfarers resting upon the sandy beach are engaged in conversation, seemingly oblivious to the rapidly worsening weather conditions surrounding them.
The present work is likely to have been exhibited alongside Aivazovsky’s painting of the same year, The Wave (State Russian Museum, St Petersburg), at Durand-Ruel’s Paris gallery in 1890. Ostensibly, no exhibition catalogue was published, although a handwritten label in French upon the stretcher of the present work suggests its presence in this exhibition. Twenty-nine works by Aivazovsky were exhibited and in his letter to Aleksey Suvorin, he writes that just nine of his works were painted four to five years previously, and that the remainder were painted over the course of the previous two years. In March 1890, the artist and his wife attended the exhibition opening, which was to become a great success, highly lauded by art critics. On 3rd April the same year, the artist became the first non-French national to receive the Légion D'honneur, the prestigious order established by Napoléon Bonaparte (1769-1821) in 1802.
Aivazovsky was a successful artist from a very early age. He enjoyed the patronage of three successive Tsars of Russia and was entrusted with the prestigious task of supplying seascapes for the Ottoman sultans at the Palace of Dolmabahçe, the heart of the Ottoman Empire at the time. His compelling maritime scenes were revered in Russia and abroad for their freshness and vitality, and indeed he left behind a vast oeuvre.
The present work was painted in the spring of 1889 while Aivazovsky was residing at Sheikh-Mamai, his estate in his hometown Theodosia, a short ride away from the Koktebel bay. Located on the shore of the Black Sea, Koktebel boasted picturesque mountains and infinite blue seas which greatly appealed to the artist, and which had long been popular with visitors. In The Coast of Koktebel, Crimea, Aivazovsky has skilfully encapsulated a moment just prior to the storm breaking out: the waves gain momentum before culminating in a turbulent array of white froth, the looming background mountains almost merge with the threatening skies, and the racing seagulls offer a veritable sense of the impending tempest. In tender contrast, two wayfarers resting upon the sandy beach are engaged in conversation, seemingly oblivious to the rapidly worsening weather conditions surrounding them.
The present work is likely to have been exhibited alongside Aivazovsky’s painting of the same year, The Wave (State Russian Museum, St Petersburg), at Durand-Ruel’s Paris gallery in 1890. Ostensibly, no exhibition catalogue was published, although a handwritten label in French upon the stretcher of the present work suggests its presence in this exhibition. Twenty-nine works by Aivazovsky were exhibited and in his letter to Aleksey Suvorin, he writes that just nine of his works were painted four to five years previously, and that the remainder were painted over the course of the previous two years. In March 1890, the artist and his wife attended the exhibition opening, which was to become a great success, highly lauded by art critics. On 3rd April the same year, the artist became the first non-French national to receive the Légion D'honneur, the prestigious order established by Napoléon Bonaparte (1769-1821) in 1802.