Ivan Aivazovsky, one of the best-known marine artists, painted his Sea at Night in the1880s. He was looking to portray the elements: Aivazovsky showed the waves, calm after the storm and majestically beautiful, but at any moment they may engulf the sailors who are clinging to the broken mast. Their figures are barely discernible in the pale moon light.

Compositionally, this work is almost a replica of the world famous The Ninth Wave. In both paintings we see sailors in distress at sea, with the wreckage of their ship shown at the lower edge of the picture thus creating a heavy and perilous image of the sea.

However The Ninth Wave showed a lot of drama, with its fine detail of the tall waves almost crashing over the sailors, and the sunset creating a disturbing contrast of colours. In The Sea at Night, with its tranquil palette and calmed waves, the tragedy is more low-key.

Ivan Aivazovsky created a few thousand paintings during his lifetime. Repetition and variations of the same subject-matter were typical of his art. While art critics often reproached the master for ‘copying’, he retorted that he was trying to correct the faults in his past works that only he had noticed.

Whereas pupils were not allowed to work on their own, the 19-year old Aivazovsky did five paintings which he had displayed at the 1836 final exhibition.

The painter was proud of his Armenian origin and had canvases dedicated to Armenia, such as the 1882 painting Valley of Mount Ararat. He also painted Russian nature.