In the 1850s, Ivan Aivazovsky painted a lot of pictures, which later became proverbial. Among them is The Ninth Wave painted in 1850. Besides, Aivazovsky’s creative work was highly acclaimed and appreciated abroad. In1857, he was awarded the Order of the Legions of Honour — the highest award in France — for his paintings displayed in Paris. The Crimean war (1853–1856) couldn’t but impact him. Those developments made Aivazovsky still closer to the Navy and soon served as the basis for many pieces that made him famous. His genuinely realistic view of the world was reflected in all of them.

The picture Rush on the Dnieper near Aleshki was painted in 1857. It has a rather simple theme, but Aivazovsky never shied away from everyday life finding beauty in the routine. He portrayed ordinary people, who sailed across the Dnieper on a ferry boat, against the sun set. First of all, this piece strikes the viewer by its intense sunlight which the picture is full of. In the background, there are sails of a windmill. The ferry boat we see in the picture was at that time near the place of Aleshki. Now this is the town of Tsyrupinsk, which took back its previous name in 2016. The painter knew broad Ukrainian steppes very well, and Ukraine was in many respects close to him. Aivazovsky travelled a lot from Crimea to Odessa and knew those picturesque places very well.

In that period, Aivazovsky often portrayed nature at sunrise or sunset. He was fascinated by bright lighting that made landscapes look purple hot. His interest in such themes corresponded to the romantic tenor of Aivazovsky creative work in the mid-19th century and helped the artist to epitomise his skills to the maximum. Such compositions called for his absolutely perfect mastery, and Aivazovsky brilliantly coped with them. That is why the artist was so enchanted by the South Coast of Crimea. He wrote that only there ‘gorgeous nature, magnificent sea and picturesque mountains provide the painter with elevated poetry to such a great extent…’.