Clair de Lune: February 2025

Ivan Aivazovsky - Ship by Moonlight, late 19th century
oil on canvas, 15.9 x 23.5 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Aivazovsky was a celebrated painter of seascapes. He preferred to depict sailing ships, but sometimes portrayed modern steamships like this one. The artist’s affinity for the ocean began in his birthplace, the Black Sea port of Feodosia (Theodosia) in Crimea, then part of the Russian Empire and now in Ukraine. As a member of the city’s longstanding Armenian community, Aivazovsky had a rich cultural and linguistic background. He worked and exhibited widely, including in cities in present-day Armenia, Georgia, Italy, Russia, Turkey, and mainland Ukraine, but he remained rooted in Feodosia (Theodosia). The museum that he opened in the city in 1880 was the third public art gallery in the Russian Empire.