Overview of the Aivazovsky Museum in Feodosia

Not all artists, whose names today are ready to gather crowds of admirers of talent at the exhibition of their works, during their lifetime felt themselves to be fully successful in a creative sense. As Balzac said: "Glory is the sun of the dead", alas, these words can be attributed to artists with depressing frequency.

However, among the series of big names there are those who, during their lifetime, were not just accepted, but revered in every possible way, commercially successful and recognized by colleagues and fans of painting. One of these artists is Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky.

Today, the master's paintings can be seen mainly on the second floor of the mansion. Of course, every second visitor to the museum in Feodosia comes here to see the textbook "Ninth Wave", perhaps the main visiting card of the master. But this picture is in the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. But the work "Among the waves", no less powerful and grandiose, takes an honorable place in the Feodosia gallery. By the way, it was created by a painter at the age of 80.

The museum has about 400 works of the master, and in general there are more than 12 thousand exhibits. It will be no less interesting for visitors to look at the household items of the Aivazovsky family, their personal belongings, photographs.

The museum lives on: every year many tourists tend to visit the most famous seascape painter. We are pleased with the high-quality lighting of the exhibition halls. The mansion has many windows and antique chandeliers hang from the ceilings.

The tour will take you through the main hall, the painter's workshop, and the building of his sister's house. There is also a secret room in the museum, you can go there for a fee. Aivazovsky's personal belongings are kept there: a real easel, a personal notebook, and so on.

It is interesting that luck, in a sense, accompanied the artist's work even after his death. Museum works could have easily disappeared during the years of Hitler's occupation, but they were sent to Yerevan on time and after the war, all the evacuated works returned to their homeland.

300,000 visitors pass through the museum annually. The gallery regularly hosts major scientific conferences and classical music festivals. The museum is located at: st. Gallery, building 2. It is not far from the railway station.

The exhibition complex is structured so that the visitor sees the paintings in the order in which they were painted. This shows not just the creative path of the artist, but the evolution of his skill. From canvas to canvas, the seascape painter became more accurate in details, in methods of transmitting light, working with color and composition. Such an exhibition structure is useful for aspiring artists.who can likewise find a better illustration of theoretical knowledge.

The gallery is also a place where the works of Aivazovsky's followers and students are carefully kept. Here you can see the canvases of Arkhip Kuindzhi, Adolf Fessler, Mikhail Latri.

There are museums, the semantic center of which is two or three famous works for which tourists travel from afar. But in the gallery of Aivazovsky, despite the outstanding, not needing to be introduced to art lovers "St. George Monastery", "Sea. Koktebel "," Sevastopol raid " and the unfinished "Exploding the Ship", there are many less famous works. And they cannot be called secondary.

12,000 items of exhibits in the collection of the museum complex are truly the property of the gallery. Some tourists are disappointed that the notorious "Ninth Wave" is absent from the museum. But this can be partially compensated for artistic experiments of Maximilian Voloshin and Lev Lagorio, as well as picturesque, noteworthy canvases of the marine painters of the Western European school.

The full exposition of the museum shows Aivazovsky as a person who is carried away, energetic, who has managed to realize many initiatives during his long and fruitful life. But even if you are surprised by his work outside the status of a marine painter, if you admire the very furnishings of the house, exhibits that speak of the artist's life arrangement, seascapes will still remain in the foreground.

Those who have previously seen only reproductions of famous paintings will surely be impressed. Live they look even bigger, more epochal. Decorated in heavy frames, they convey the power of the elements: inexorable and victorious, demolishing everything in its path.

This cannot be compared even with outstanding art photography: it seems that the famous seascape painter has tuned his visual analyzer to the utmost clarity - the shades of the water change with a stunning difference in the color scale. From pure, almost innocent sky blue to the open black mouth of the deep sea. AND Each landscape has its own mood, its own message.

Some reproductions seem gloomy to the viewer, but seeing them live, one no longer appreciates gloom and by no means monotony, but the smallest details of a specimen of nature snatched out by the artist's eye and heart. To write this way, you need not only to be attentive, to be able to work with nature, you need to be born in these parts. Individual works are huge both in size and in emotional charge.

It is difficult to compare these fundamental works with anything. The gallery does not look like a home, where only a few paintings are not of the first importance: the grandeur of halls large enough for a mansion and an excellent selection of works impress tourists.

In the spacious two-story house, where the seascape museum is located, the architectural Italian style is guessed. Ivan Konstantinovich, as you might guess, built this house according to his own project. This art gallery, bequeathed to the city, became a state museum in 1920. But the history of the museum is not the most even and prosperous. During the years of the change of the country's system, the headquarters of the Cheka, divisional departments of the Red Army and Navy were located here.

As a visitor to the museum, you will definitely find yourself in the house of Ekaterina Konstantinovna Aivazovskaya. This is not just an addition to the main exhibition, it is an important part of it. In Armenian families it was customary to settle in the neighborhood with close relatives. Therefore, next to her brother's house there is Catherine's mansion.

If you want to see how the classic worked on biblical and mythical subjects in painting, be sure to take a look here. In the mansion of Aivazovsky's sister, the organizers of the museum decided to exhibit the artist's canvases, abstracted from the marine theme. These are paintings that combine religious themes, biblical subjects.

Ever since school, probably everyone remembers that Aivazovsky is an artist who incredibly accurately conveyed seascapes on his canvases. In addition to the great paintings dedicated to the water element, Ivan Konstantinovich also wrote large battle scenes, biblical subjects and even portraits. And the artist could call himself a collector and a patron of the arts.

The real name of the classic is Hovhannes Ayvazyan and he is the most famous artist with Armenian roots. His biography is unique. As a child, the boy showed not only artistic abilities, it is known that he himself learned to play the violin.

The outstanding artist was patronized by Nicholas the First. Aivazovsky was lucky to work in the south of Italy - these creative years were especially fruitful. The enthusiasm of critics and commercial success did not pass by the marine painter. For his work, Ivan Konstantinovich was awarded gold medal of the Paris Academy of Arts.

Once, when the artist was 27 years old, he sailed towards the house on a ship, in the Bay of Biscay the ship got into a storm, almost sank - an obituary about the death of a Russian painter was published in Parisian newspapers. They say that a false report of death promises a long life - Aivazovsky lived for 82 years. It is interesting that, being 75 years old, Ivan Konstantinovich and his wife visited America, and it was at the end of the 19th century.

Aivazovsky managed to live in many places: he studied in St. Petersburg, went on business in Italy, was in Paris, Portugal, Spain, in Egypt, Constantinople, in the Caucasus. By the way, the master had the rank of a real privy councilor, which was equal to the rank of admiral, and in 1864 the artist received hereditary nobility.

Despite such an extensive travel circle, Ivan Konstantinovich said: "My address is always in Feodosia." And these were not just words. Aivazovsky was engaged in the affairs of his hometown with all zeal, a sincere desire to equip his homeland, to improve the place of his eternal love.

In the city, the master opened an art school and an art gallery. Feodosia is still the center of picturesque culture in the south of Russia. Thanks to Ivan Konstantinovich, a concert hall appeared in the city, a library was equipped. With his own money, the painter erected a fountain in memory of Kaznacheev, who at that time was the mayor of Feodosia.

The artist was also actively interested in issues of archeology, he personally supervised the burial excavations, and individual items found during these excavations are now in the Hermitage. Besides, Aivazovsky initiated the construction of the Feodosia - Dzhankoy railway, he advocated for the expansion of the Feodosia seaport, and the largest trading port in the Crimea was indeed in Feodosia.

20 years before the end of the 19th century, the artist opened an exhibition hall in his own house. There he exhibited paintings that, according to his decision, should never have left the borders of Feodosia. Completed the exhibition and still unfinished work.

It is curious that, although not in the most enthusiastic tones, Chekhov wrote about Aivazovsky, it follows that these two classics had a chance to meet. Anton Pavlovich was surprised that when he personally met Pushkin, Aivazovsky did not read any of his books. And I haven't read any books at all. But even memoir notes say that Ivan Konstantinovich was an interesting person, lively, active, with his own opinion, very energetic for his venerable age.

Quite rightly, Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky became the first honorary citizen of the city of Feodosia. Therefore, every guest of the famous southern resort should pay tribute to the memory of an outstanding person of his era and visit the Aivazovsky Museum in Feodosia.

In the next video, see an overview of the Aivazovsky Museum in Feodosia.