Aivazovsky's student days in St Petersburg coincided with a confused and in many ways contradictory phase in Russian history. On the one hand it was a period of harsh tyranical rule and political stagnation under Tsar Nicholas I, on the other it witnessed a great flowering of Russian culture, beginning after the Napoleonic War of 1812. This was the age of Pushkin, Gogol, Lermontov, Belinsky, Glinka and Brulloff. Within the Academy the canons of Classicism, closely linked to ideas of civic duty and patriotism, still held sway, but the new stirrings of Romanticism were also discernible.

In the autumn of 1836 Aivazovsky presented 5 marine pictures to the Academic exhibition, which were highly appreciated. In 1837, Aivazovsky received the Major Gold Medal for Calm in the Gulf of Finland (1836) and The Great Roads at Kronstadt (1836), which allowed him to go on a long study trip abroad. However the artist first went to the Crimea to perfect himself in his chosen genre by painting the sea and views of Crimean coastal towns.

During the period of 1840-1844 Aivazovsky, as a pensioner of the Academy of Arts, spent time in Italy, traveled to Germany, France, Spain, and Holland. He worked much and had many exhibitions, meeting everywhere with success. He painted a lot of marine landscapes, which became very popular in Italy: The Bay of Naples by Moonlight (1842), Seashore. Calm. (1843), Kind on the Venetian lagoon (1841), Bay of Naples (1841). His works were highly appreciated by J.W.M. Turner, a prominent English landscape and marine painter. In the course of his work, Aivazovsky evolved his own method of depicting the motion of the sea – from memory, without preliminary sketches, limiting himself to rough pencil outlines. Aivazovsky’s phenomenal memory and romantic imagination allowed him to do all this with incomparable brilliance. The development of this new method reflected the spirit of the age, when the ever-increasing romantic tendencies put an artist's imagination to the front.

In 1844 Aivazovsky asked permission to return home prematurely from his European tour and he set off for Russia via Holland. In Amsterdam he organized an exhibition of his pictures; it was a great success and the Amsterdam Academy honoured him with the title of academician. Once back in St. Petersburg the Council of the Academy also bestowed on him the title of academician and by the Tsar's edict he was attached to the Chief Naval Staff "with the title of painter to the Staff and with the right to wear the uniform of the naval ministry". Immediately Aivazovsky was commissioned to paint views of Kronstadt, Revel (now Tallinn, Latvia) and other places on the Baltic coast. By the end of the winter he had completed the commision. The result was a series of large-scale canvases in which Aivazovsky succeeded in combining accurate topographical information with a poetic mood.

From 1846 to 1848 he painted several canvases with naval warfare as the subject; the pictures portrayed historical battles of the Russian Fleet The Battle of Chesme (1848), The Battle in the Chios Channel (1848), Meeting of the Brig Mercury with the Russian Squadron After the Defeat of Two Turkish Battleships (1848).

He was also commissioned by the Ottoman Sultan to paint various artworks which are still hang in Turkish museums. His work also hangs in the most renowned museums throughout the world, including New York's Metropolitan Museum and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

His parents family name was Aivazian. Some of artist's paintings bear a signature, in Armenian letters, "Hovhannes Aivazian" (Russian: Ованес Айвазян).

By the mid-1840s Aivazovsky was already thinking of settling permanently in Feodosia, since the role of court painter held little attraction for him. He preferred to work steadily at his paintings in a peaceful provincial seaside town. Thus Aivazovsky stayed in Feodosia for the rest of his life. He travelled occasionally to St Petersburg and visited Moscow from time to time, he made journeys to the Caucasus, along the Volga, to Turkey and to America and his exhibitions were successful wherever he went; but Feodosia always remained his real home. It was there that he produced his best canvases.

Towards the 1850s the romantic features in Aivazovsky’s work became increasingly pronounced. This can be seen quite clearly in one of his best and most famous paintings The Ninth Wave (1850) and also in Moonlit Night (1849), The Sea. Koktebel. (1853), Storm (1851), Shipwreck (1854) and others.

The process, which determined the development of Russian art in the second half of the 19th century, also affected Aivazovsky. A new and consistently realistic tendency appeared in his work, although the romantic features still remained. The artist's greatest achievement of this period is The Black Sea (1881), a picture showing the nature of the sea, eternally alive, always in motion. Other important pictures of the late years are Rainbow (1873), Shipwreck at rocks (1870s), Shipwreck (1876), The Billow (1889), The Mary Caught in a Storm (1892).

Some forty years after settling permanently in Feodosia, Aivazovsky financed the erection of the picture gallery there which bears his name. It now houses 130 pictures and 270 sketches by Aivazovsky himself, as well as works by Lagorio, Vessler, Latri, Voloshin, Bogaevsky and others connected with the eastern Crimea, a place of ancient culture and severe but picturesque landscapes. Aivazovsky himself was accomplished in many areas, played the violin, was an architect, and dabbled in archeology.

Aivazovsky also spent some time working in the Caucasus, sailing to the shores of Asia, visiting Egypt during the opening of the Suez Canal and near the end of his life, in 1892, Aivazovsky even traveled to America, where he visited Washington, DC, and Niagara Falls. He produced paintings as a result of all his travels, including a famous painting of Niagara Falls that hangs in his Feodosia gallery.

Aivazovsky maintained his capacity for work, his energy and lively creative intelligence until the very end of his life. All in all he painted more than 6,000 pictures and a multitude of skillfully executed drawings. Many of his works have taken their places among the greatest achievements of visual art. Kramskoy referred to Aivazovsky as "a star of the first magnitude" and thus correctly established the painter's place in the pantheon of Russian art.

He was a member of Academies of Stuttgart, Florence, Rome and Amsterdam.

Fate was kind to Aivazovsky, bestowing on him a clear mind and rich soul. He worked all his life in a congenial setting of his own choice; he received in his lifetime all the signs of official recognition which he deserved; his talent was universally acclaimed.

From his home in Feodosia Aivazovsky worked for the good of its inhabitants and the development of the region, taking this role very seriously. He opened in Feodosia the first School of Arts (in 1865), then the Art Gallery (in 1889). He supplied the town with water from his own estate, began the first archaeological excavations in the region and built a historical museum. Finally, thanks to his efforts a commercial port was established at Feodosia and linked up to the railway network. By these and other deeds Aivazovsky earned the love and respect of the townspeople. To this day the principal sights of the town are his picture gallery and his grave near an ancient Armenian church.

Aivazovsky died on 19 April (2 May New Style) 1900, on the verge of the twentieth century. On easel there was a canvas with the unfinished picture "Explosion of the ship" he had begun that same day. On his tombstoneis written: "He was born mortal - has left on itself immortal memory".