Marine painter Ivan Aivazovsky is one of the most famous Russian artists in the world. His pictures are kept in renowned museums and private collections and are successfully sold at international auctions every year.

Aivazovsky was born into the family of an impoverished merchant in Feodosia in 1817. His first teacher was architect Jacob Koch who drew the town governor’s attention to the child prodigy. Thanks to the recommendation, Aivazovsky was able to enter the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. He was a student of French artist Philippe Tanneur. One of the pictures by student Aivazovsky was awarded with a gold medal and he graduated two years earlier than intended. He was sent to Crimea where he worked on his own and then he was sent abroad for six years.

Aivazovsky painted landscapes in different cities over the world; he was appointed the Russian Navy’s chief painter and was a member of the Academies of Arts in Rome, Paris, Florence, Amsterdam and Stuttgart. His creative work in Turkey marked a special period of his life.

In 1870s, the artist was introduced to Sultan Abdulaziz of Turkey and the latter commissioned Aivazovsky to paint 17 pictures for which he was subsequently bestowed with an order. This commission was part of a great plan of Abdulaziz who cherished the idea of instilling some European cultural habits into everyday life of Turkish society. The Constantinople at Night is of that series of pictures; the artist’s impressions of the city are reflected in it. The picture is made in the spirit of Romanticism: a moonlit landscape was favored by Romanticists. Afterwards, Aivazovsky’s canvases served to decorate a hall of the palace where Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich signed peace at the end of the Russo-Turkish war in 1878.