Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky

Private Collection, circa 1930s
Thence by descent to the present owner

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is in beautiful condition. The canvas has been lined fairly recently; the paint layer is stable. The cracking to the paint layer throughout is very slightly raised but not unpleasantly so. The painting is cleaned and varnished. Apart from a few retouches around the extreme edges, it seems to us, at any rate, there are very few if any restorations to the paint layer despite the fact that some color fluoresce slightly darker in the trees, for instance. For the most part, the picture is unrestored and in very good condition and should be hung as is.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Aivazovsky painted numerous Crimean landscapes and the present work stands out among his most accomplished and sophisticated. The soft, pastel palette and the highly detailed, complex composition engenders a most dignified and harmonious work. The luminous sunrise intensifies the pinks, light yellows and pale purples, which seamlessly blend together. Light shimmers in the water and flickers gently in the grazing sheep and goats; it brightens the rich browns of the earth in the foreground and highlights the figure of the horse in the center. The boat in the distance glides majestically towards shore while the geese in the lower left foreground gather before the Cypress trees. Sunrise, Yalta of 1878, presently in the Aivazovsky Art Gallery, Theodosia, Ukraine, most closely resembles this composition, as does the earlier Night in Crimea, View of Ayu-Dag, currently in the Odessa Museum.

Dr. Grigory Goldovsky suggests the number 868 found in the lower left corner of the composition most certainly corresponds to a Hermitage Museum inventory number. This handwritten inventory catalogue was begun in 1859 and does not only cover the works of art housed in the Hermitage, but also the Imperial residences of Peterhof, Pavlovsk, Tsarskoe Selo, etc. It is highly probable that the present work was sold in the late 1920s or 1930s with other paintings from the government museum depository for hard currency. This corresponds to the years the painting entered the collection of an American collector.