IVAN KONSTANTINOVICH AIVAZOVSKY (1817 Feodosija 1900) Heavy swell on the high seas. 1898. Oil on canvas. Signed and dated lower right in Cyrillic and again on the reverse: Aivazovsky 1898. 61 × 93.5 cm. Certificate: Gianni Caffiero, 5.8.2025. Provenance: - Private collection, London. - With Galerie Louis Bock & Sohn, Hamburg. - Collection of Prof. Dr Max Nonne (1861–1959), Hamburg. - European private collection. While at the beginning of his artistic career Ivan Aivazovsky's marine paintings predominantly depicted calm waters and a harmonious atmosphere, his later work contains increasingly dramatic compositions that display to impressive effect the natural power of the sea. The striking painting offered here at auction, which shows the roiling swell of a turbulent sea, was created two years before Aivazovsky's death in 1898. The work is an outstanding example from the artist's late phase, in which the vibrancy and use of light, emphasised by the superbly executed gradations of colour between the light and dark blue tones of the water, illustrate Aivazovsky's extraordinary virtuosity as a first-class marine painter. In 1847, at the age of just 30, Aivazovsky was appointed professor of marine painting at the renowned Russian Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg. In the decades that followed, Aivazovsky became one of the most famous painters, not only in the Russian Empire, but also in all parts of Western Europe. International recognition led Aivazovsky to travel extensively to all the cultural centres of Europe, including Berlin, Vienna, Rome, Paris and London. Due to his great accomplishments in marine painting, he was appointed official painter of the Imperial Navy by Tsar Nicholas I (1796–1855), which also granted him the right to wear the uniform of the Tsarist navy. In the present work, Ivan Aivazovsky is particularly successful in capturing the rough seas in a dramatic yet realistic manner. The balanced composition and the reduced colour palette, which consists almost exclusively of various shades of blue, also lend the painting an extremely modern character. It is therefore not surprising that Aivazovsky's paintings not only enjoyed great popularity during the artist's lifetime but continue to do so today. * The full tax is charged on this item marked *, i.e. VAT is charged on the sum will be refunded to Purchasers providing a validly stamped export declaration.