“Great Artists” - a collection about outstanding masters of painting. The book series contains more than 50 illustrations, an “elegantly written” biography of the artist and the history of the creation of the paintings.

The second volume of the collection is dedicated to the outstanding Russian painter Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky (1817-1900). Aivazovsky occupies an exceptional place in the history of not only Russian, but also world landscape painting. The fame of one of the best marine painters came to the artist very early and crowned his creative path for sixty years. Aivazovsky’s early paintings testify to his careful mastery of the canons of the seascape, dating back to the painting of Lorrain, and the influence of M. N. Vorobyov and the late Sylvester Shchedrin. Specific accuracy is combined here with the classicist rationality of compositional plans (“View of the seaside in the vicinity of St. Petersburg”, 1835). A purely romantic worldview, admiration for the vast, ever-changing element of the sea finds mature expression in the works of the 1840s, when the artist gained European fame. A number of foreign academies elect him as an honorary member, J. Turner writes an enthusiastic ode in honor of one of his paintings. The most famous work of this period is the painting “The Ninth Wave” (1850). The theme of a shipwreck, typical of the iconography of romanticism, is presented here surrounded by strong light and shadow effects, enhancing the overall impression of the boundlessness of the raging space. An unusually prolific artist, Aivazovsky often resorted to compositional and coloristic cliches. However, in the best paintings - such as “The Black Sea” (1881) - the best features of his talent appear: a sensitive understanding of the aesthetics of the sublime, subtle mastery of the tonal transmission of light piercing the water column. The feeling of the majestic beauty of the sea element distinguishes the master’s work and sets his art apart from everything that was created in the field of marine painting in the 19th century. In addition to the sea, Ivan Konstantinovich painted cities, views of Armenia, nature, and biblical scenes. Aivazovsky was the last and brightest romantic of Russian painting.