Hovhannes Aïvazian, known as Ivan Konstantinovich Aïvazovski, was born in 1817 in Theodosia, Crimea, into an Armenian family. His talent opened up to him at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg, where he specialized in landscape and the navy. Graduated in 1837, he studied the coasts of Crimea then traveled to Italy thanks to a pension from the Academy. Naples, Venice, the Bay of Constantinople and the Mediterranean shores enrich a memory visual that he will use all his life. Aivazovsky generally does not paint the wave directly on the pattern. He observes, draws, then reconstructs the moving sea in the workshop. This method allows him to unite real experience and romantic imagination. Light organizes its paintings: moon, dawn, fire or lightning cross the water, make the wave transparent and give the horizon an almost infinite depth. Appointed painter to the naval staff russian, it represents battles, ports and ships with precise knowledge, but its navies go beyond the military document. The Battle of Chesme transforms night combat into cosmic conflagration. The Ninth Wave, painted in 1850, shows survivors hanging on a mast after the shipwreck. The approaching wave is immense, but the rising sun transforms the danger into an image of hope. The Rainbow similarly uses color as an opening in the heart of the storm. In Among the Waves, a late work, the marine element becomes almost autonomous: sky and water occupy the entire field. Aivazovsky returned permanently to Theodosia, where he founded a workshop, a gallery opened in 1880 and supported urban projects. He participated in around one hundred and twenty international exhibitions and died in his hometown in 1900. His Armenian identity, his imperial career and his attachment to Crimea together constitute the complex history of his work. The "Ivan Aïvazovski" selection notably compares The Ninth Wave and The Rainbow. His reading favors details.
Aivazovsky paints the sea as memory recomposes an event: brighter, larger and more expressive than the observed moment.