One of the most famous paintings by Ivan Aivazovsky “The Ninth Wave” was painted in 1850. It became famous immediately after writing and was acquired by Nicholas I. The collector and philanthropist Tretyakov closely followed Aivazovsky’s work, visited his exhibitions and workshop in Feodosia.
The painting depicts the sea, very rough after a recent storm. But not everything is over yet – the legendary ninth wave must come – the apogee of storms and storms, the most powerful and destructive wave. Several exhausted people who survived the shipwreck cling to the fragment of the mast of the sunken ship. The sun illuminating the heavens seems to cheer them up, gives them a chance for salvation, but the dark, almost black water wants to swallow the sailors, as the ship has already swallowed them.
This work was written by Aivazovsky during his creative ascent. After “The Ninth Wave”, he painted a whole series of paintings depicting the sea during a storm (“Rainbow”, “A ship in the stormy sea”). But the most famous was the painting “The Ninth Wave”, this work became a kind of pass to the broadest world recognition of Aivazovsky’s painting talent.
Year of painting: 1850.
Dimensions of the painting: 221 x 332 cm.
Material: canvas.
Writing technique: oil.
Genre: Marina.
Style: romanticism.
Gallery: State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.