Tanais Gallery
Ivan Aivazovsky. View of Constantinople by Moonlight.
1846. Oil on canvas.
The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.
In the spring of 1845 Aivazovsky set off on a voyage around the coasts of Asia Minor and the Greek archipelago on a ship commanded by Admiral F. Lutke, a noted scholar and founder of the Russian Geographical Society. Once again Aivazovsky plunged into intensive work and his sketch-books were soon filled with new impressions. On his return he settled in the Crimea for a while to paint Black Sea coastal scenery and towns he had visited during the recent voyage. The pictures of this period are among his best, especially those in which he depicts Odessa and Constantinople (View of Constantinople by Moonlight). Here, in the shimmering gold of sky and water, the moonlit buildings, the romantic silhouettes of statues, indeed in the whole colour scheme we sense that same vision of the beautiful and exotic south which inspired many of Pushkin's poems.
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