Jean AIVASOVSKY (Ivan AIVAZOVSKY) (1817-1900) - Lot 34

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Lot n° 34
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Estimation :
15000 - 20000 EUR
Jean AIVASOVSKY (Ivan AIVAZOVSKY) (1817-1900) - Lot 34
Jean AIVASOVSKY (Ivan AIVAZOVSKY) (1817-1900) The Return from the Fields in Little Russia: Sunset Effect, 1864 Oil on canvas, signed and dated lower left 59 x 77 cm A certificate of authenticity established by Mr Guillaume Aral, expert of the work of Aivasovsky, will be given to the buyer On view until April 7 by appointment at MAKET EXPERT 17 avenue de Messine - 75008 Paris Tel +33 (0) 1 42 25 89 33 - info@maket-expert.com Although world-renowned for his seascapes, Aïvasovsky also liked to paint landscapes, which were a counterpart to his seascapes. To his "storms" corresponded landscapes that were battered by the elements: floods, heavy snows, torrential rains, eruptions, eclipses, etc. His "calm seas" were echoed by the steppes and vast fields of Little Russia (the old name given to Ukraine), like "seas of wheat" punctuated by silhouettes of mills whose wings recalled the sails of ships. And as for his "calm seas", the painter varied the effects of light: the effect of the rising sun, the effect of noon, the effect of the setting sun, the effect of twilight, the effect of the moon, with, moreover, the variations of the seasons: the snowy winter, the spring and its green tones, the summer and its yellow wheat, the autumn and its orange tones. The sailors found their equivalents in the workers of the earth with the difference that the landscapes allowed the inclusion of female and child characters, almost absent from the seascapes. In general, Aïvasovsky's characters are details within his compositions, as if they were submerged by the immensity of nature. Our painting is representative of these works which are tributes to the majesty of Ukrainian nature and the work of modest peasants in harmony with this same nature. It is a mental landscape, romantic and ideal, which does not exist, that the painter reconstitutes in his studio according to his fantasized memories and his artistic "grammar". The small thatched house at the foot of a gigantic tree can be found in several of the master's paintings. Also the theme of the wagon pulled by oxen is frequent, especially when they represent the Chumak families - Ukrainian and Crimean Gypsies - who drive with their convoys and stop in the middle of the steppes to set up their makeshift camp. The fact that the signature is in French, i.e. with the use of the umlaut over the "i" and the "s" to transcribe the "z" sound (Aïvasovsky) attests that this painting was made in France or, at least, for the French market. Indeed, in 1864 the Russian master prepared his participation in the Paris Salon of 1865. He exhibited a painting entitled Soleil couchant à Soudac (Crimea) (Sunset at Soudac), whose description by the art critic Félix Jahyer could apply to our painting, if it were not for the presence of the sea: "It is hardly possible for the eyes to gaze, without being dazzled, at this burning sun which bathes the sea with the prodigious reflection of its brilliant rays; the shore is as if set on fire and the parts which are not illuminated are thrown back into a deeper night. Guillaume ARAL
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