Aivazovsky

Overview

Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky (born Hovhannes Aivazian, Feodosia 1817 – 1900), Russian Romantic painter of Armenian parentage, one of the greatest masters of marine painting, based mostly in Feodosia on the Black Sea. (Source: Wikipedia, «Ivan Aivazovsky»; Marie writes «Aïvazowsky» in 1874 and «Ayvosonsky» in 1882.)

Relevance to Marie

• 1 March 1874 (Nice). «Nous allons à l'hôtel Chauvain voir les tableaux d'Aïvazowsky, l'entrée un franc au profit des pauvres. Les effets de la lumière, l'eau, les vagues, les brouillards sont d'une finesse, d'un naturel, d'une transparence surprenants» (017.0090). Her first recorded appreciation of a marine painter; she judges him for the light and the water.
• 8 November 1882 (Poltava). On the Russia trip she calls on M. and Mme Abaza, «un ci-devant millionnaire», whose house at Poltava «ressemble fort à un palais»: «Il y a même un marbre de Carrare et un tableau d'Ayvosonsky» (097.0054, reader footnote).

References in Diary

• First mentioned: 1874-03-01 (017.0090); also 1882-11-08 (097.0054).