Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky

Aivazovsky visited Constantinople for the first time in 1845, as part of an official navy expedition to Asia Minor, the Aegean Islands and the Levant. In a letter from the same year, Aivazovsky expressed his particular enchantment with Constantinople, ``there is nothing more majestic than this city, here one forgets both Naples and Venice.''

As a result, the artist painted numerous Constantinople views under various light conditions.  Aivazovsky's masterful rendition of a sunset's warm glow over Constantinople's majestic Golden Horn makes this particular work especially outstanding.  The calm, glassy waters, the sliver of moon in the upper left and the pink-streaked city of Constantinople beyond, luminous and grand, all add to the scene’s sumptuousness.

Throughout his prodigiously successful career, Aivazovsky received important commissions and accolades from Russian Emperors and Sultans alike. The cultural similarities between Theodosia and Constantinople may partially explain Aivazovsky’s passion for the latter city. Constantinople, situated only two hundred miles across the Black Sea from Theodosia, housed a large Armenian community; reciprocally, Theodosia was viewed by the Ottomans as a Küçük Stambul, or a little Istanbul.  In the fall of 1888, there was an exhibition featuring Aivazovsky in Constantinople and in 1890, Aivazovsky visited his beloved city for the last time accompanied by his second wife.