Книга: Aiwasowski Maler des Meeres

The Russian-Armenian painter Ivan Konstantinovitch Aivasovski (1817-1900) enjoyed international fame and rose to become a legend in his own lifetime, yet in the West only few are familiar with his work today. Although raised in ordinary circumstances, he even advanced to become court painter to Czar Nicholas I. On the basis of a selection of the painters most famous seascapes, this monograph provides the reader with insight into Aivasovskis extensive oeuvre, relating it both to Netherlandish maritime as well as Romantic European landscape painting.
The ship on the high seas in Aivasovskis paintings is always an allegory of some kind calm, watery surfaces reflecting light from the sun or moon alternate with roaring storms and tumultuous surf-palpable symbols for lifes perils. Coastlines and stretches of land, shipwreck motifs, mythological scenes, as well as highly dynamic images of waves that virtually catapult the viewer straight into the picture are also part of his repertoire.