(1817 Feodosia 1900)

A sailing ship on a high sea by moonlight

Oil on board

Signed lower right and inscribed: Aivasovsky. Roma

24.6 × 19.2 cm

Expertise:
- Ivan Samarine, 9.8.2004.
- Tretjakow Galerie, 21.12.2004.

Provenance:
- Bonhams, London, 16.1.2004, Lot 23.
- European private collection.

This atmospheric nocturnal seascape depicting a three-master on the rolling waves of a high sea has been identified by Ivan Saarinen as an authentic work by Ivan Konstantinovich Aivasovsky, painted in the 1840s during the artist's stay in Italy. It can be compared to the painting "Chaos" from 1841, today in the cloister of San Lazzarro in Venice (Caffiero, Gianni /Samarine, Ivan: Seas, Cities and Dreams: The Paintings of Ivan Aivazovsky, London 2000, S. 34).

In both works one finds similar impressive cloud formations, as well as the chiaroscuro dramaturgy of the sky, with - in the present painting barely discernable but in the Venice painting clearly outlined - the silhouette of God.