Ivan Aivazovsky (1817-1900)
Aivazovsky’s path into art was a combination of talent and luck. He was born into a poor family that wouldn’t have been able to support an education in art. He was taken into the family of Feodosia, which allowed him to attend a proper school and then study in St Petersburg. The sea became the main object of his art. He travelled to Crimea where he spent two years living right next to the Black Sea. Among his many nautical masterpieces is The Ninth Wave, the painter’s most famous work.
The Ninth Wave |© Wikimedia Commons
