The landscape Evening at Sea was painted by Russian seascape painter of the Armenian origin Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky, an academician and honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Arts, as well as the Academy of Arts in Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, Florence and Stuttgart.
From his young age Ivan Konstantinovich had three loves: Crimea, the Black Sea and painting. As a child the future master could spend hours looking at the sea. Wherever the artist traveled, he always returned to darling to his heart, native Feodosia.
Most of the 6,000 paintings painted by I.K. Aivazovsky over 60 years of his work, are dedicated to the sea. He painted it at dawn and dusk, on a sunny day and in the dead of night, in thunderstorms and in clear weather. The artist’s palette did not count too many colors. For each painting he chose from 3 to 5 main colors and using them he created thousands of amazing shades, depicted with striking realism the depth of the sea, the boundless blue of the sky, the airiness of white clouds and the severity of storm clouds. This feature of his paintings was noted by A.P. Bogolyubov and V.V. Stasov.
The painter did not overload a canvas with paints. He perfectly mastered various techniques of brush stroke and glazing, thus his clear sky was airy and light, the raging ocean was heavy and deep, the calm sea was transparent and clear.
Aivazovsky rarely painted from nature. He considered it impossible to paint lightning or glare of the sun on the water from nature, but impressions of what he saw helped him to reproduce the landscape later.
The artist painted quickly, passionately and did not leave the easel until he had the painting finished. It was not in his character to spend years on one painting. Thanks to that, his paintings are difficult to forge - infrared analysis will show that on fake canvases paints dried unevenly. Arkady Rylov, a student at Kuindzhi’s workshop, recalled how Aivazovsky painted ‘from scratch’ before the eyes of students: ‘One hour and fifty minutes ago there was a blank canvas, now the sea is raging on it.”
Aivazovsky’s works belong to the romantic direction of Russian painting. This is especially true for paintings created in the 50s and 60s of the 19th century. The master tried to highlight in his landscapes not typical states of nature, but rare and unusual phenomena, to notice the beauty of the moment.
The painting Evening at Sea belongs to the heyday of the artist’s skill. At that time the painter finally established himself in the realistic manner of painting. The rays of the sunset in the painting shine and shimmer with delicate golden-pink tones, so that the viewer almost physically feels their tender warmth. The sea surface, covered with a slight ripple, changes color from soft blue to deep blue. The movement of the waves seems almost palpable. This landscape, as well as all Aivazovsky’s paintings belonging to that stage of his creative work, is characterized by a continuous enamel surface of painting.
From his young age Ivan Konstantinovich had three loves: Crimea, the Black Sea and painting. As a child the future master could spend hours looking at the sea. Wherever the artist traveled, he always returned to darling to his heart, native Feodosia.
Most of the 6,000 paintings painted by I.K. Aivazovsky over 60 years of his work, are dedicated to the sea. He painted it at dawn and dusk, on a sunny day and in the dead of night, in thunderstorms and in clear weather. The artist’s palette did not count too many colors. For each painting he chose from 3 to 5 main colors and using them he created thousands of amazing shades, depicted with striking realism the depth of the sea, the boundless blue of the sky, the airiness of white clouds and the severity of storm clouds. This feature of his paintings was noted by A.P. Bogolyubov and V.V. Stasov.
The painter did not overload a canvas with paints. He perfectly mastered various techniques of brush stroke and glazing, thus his clear sky was airy and light, the raging ocean was heavy and deep, the calm sea was transparent and clear.
Aivazovsky rarely painted from nature. He considered it impossible to paint lightning or glare of the sun on the water from nature, but impressions of what he saw helped him to reproduce the landscape later.
The artist painted quickly, passionately and did not leave the easel until he had the painting finished. It was not in his character to spend years on one painting. Thanks to that, his paintings are difficult to forge - infrared analysis will show that on fake canvases paints dried unevenly. Arkady Rylov, a student at Kuindzhi’s workshop, recalled how Aivazovsky painted ‘from scratch’ before the eyes of students: ‘One hour and fifty minutes ago there was a blank canvas, now the sea is raging on it.”
Aivazovsky’s works belong to the romantic direction of Russian painting. This is especially true for paintings created in the 50s and 60s of the 19th century. The master tried to highlight in his landscapes not typical states of nature, but rare and unusual phenomena, to notice the beauty of the moment.
The painting Evening at Sea belongs to the heyday of the artist’s skill. At that time the painter finally established himself in the realistic manner of painting. The rays of the sunset in the painting shine and shimmer with delicate golden-pink tones, so that the viewer almost physically feels their tender warmth. The sea surface, covered with a slight ripple, changes color from soft blue to deep blue. The movement of the waves seems almost palpable. This landscape, as well as all Aivazovsky’s paintings belonging to that stage of his creative work, is characterized by a continuous enamel surface of painting.
