Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky

Structural Condition The canvas, which is inscribed on the reverse, is unlined and attached to its fixed wooden stretcher. The turnover and tacking edges have been strengthened with a thin striplining which is ensuring an even and secure structural support. There is a slight pattern of vertical lines of craquelure which is entirely structurally secure and not visually distracting. Paint surface The paint surface has an even varnish layer and inspection under ultraviolet light shows only minimal retouchings, the most concentrated of which are in the dark pigments of the hills in the lower right of the composition. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in very good and stable condition and no work is required.
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The distinctive seal discovered on the reverse of the canvas indicates that the painting was once was held by the Petrograd Workers' Commune charged with the protection and registration of works of art and antiquities, which was briefly the central ruling power in Petrograd until Lunacharsky took post as the Commissioner of Enlightenment in 1918. The same seal was found on another important work by Aivazovsky, The Battle of Bomarsund (1858), which bears similar numbering and inscriptions on the reverse.

The 1850s was a strong decade for Aivazovsky, despite the Crimean war which broke out in the same year as the present work was painted. He was forced to leave his estate at Shah Mamai in September 1854 when the situation became unsafe, but in the present work he makes little reference to the conflict. The stillness and romance of the Black Sea at night, the warm shadows and disc-like moon in the present work is characteristic of the Crimean idyll that Aivazovsky famously constructed: cypresses, small windmills and rooftops receding towards a vanishing point to create a superb natural sense of distance.