Lot 2: IVAN KONSTANTINOVICH AIVAZOVSKY

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, NORWAY 1817-1900 FISHERMEN AT DAWN, NAPLES signed in Latin and Cyrillic, inscribed Paris and twice dated 1843 l.r. oil on canvas 57.5 by 87.8cm, 22 1/2 by 34 1/2 in.

Acquired by the grandfather of the present owner in Russia in the early 1920s

This early and rare Neopolitan view reveals that Aivazovsky was developing a number of elements that characterise his calm coastal views much earlier than had previously been thought: the same ghostly sails and hazy sun low on the horizon reappear in an 1848 variation of this subject, A Calm Morning off the Coast (fig.1, Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga) and in his Crimean views of the early 1850s. The romantic motif of the covered fishing boat with a red pennant clearly drew him, as it recurs in several works from this important early period including his superb Lake Maggiore, also painted in 1843. A friend of Aivazovsky claimed that his success lay in the fact that he a discovered that the whole of nature could be reduced to a handful of colours (Kolli, quoted in Seas, Cities and Dreams, p.207). The few known early works dating from 1843 and 1844 are so interesting partly because we witness his refinement of this pre-ordained colour range, but at the same time see a certain sharpness and definition which is frequently softened in his later dawn seascapes. It was not unusual for Aivazovsky to sign his canvases twice; the orthography of the second signature with a ‘w’ and ‘ï’ indicate that it is likely to have been included in an exhibition in Germany, possibly his 1846 Berlin exhibition.