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In the twentieth-century art one can hardly find a great master whose life and creative work have not been studied thoroughly. Strange as it may seem, but Ivan Aivazovsky is a rare exception. A great deal of his creative life remains in the dark shadow up to the present day, though one hundred years passed since the day of his death. However for the time being the striving after dispelling that dark shadow does not make itself felt. Neither is there any attempt to open wide the inner spiritual world of the singer of the sea on a more multifaceted principle.

The National Armenian Gallery has always been celebrated for its rich collections including the collection of paintings by Aivazovsky. The Yerevanian Collection was founded on the gifts of compatriots living abroad. That is why we decided to represent here those paintings of Aivazovsky which are in the collections of the Armenians who live in different countries around the world.

Now some words about the National Gallery of Armenia. It was founded in 1921 and great figures of Armenian culture took part in its foundation: the eminent painter Martiros Sarian and the great specialist in museum activity, the art critic Ruben Drampian. It was under his guidance that the Gallery was founded and gained its inimitable features.

The National Gallery consists of three main departments. The pride of the Department of European art are the works of Tintoretto, Donatello, Bassano, Rubens, Goya, Fortuny, Goyen, Pieter Claesz. Fragonard, Courbet, Monticelli, Rousseau, Boudin and Anquetin.

The Department of Russian art, the exposition of which includes the works of almost all the greatest masters of all epochs, beginning with the icon masters, has exclusive value. Here, the works by Rokotov. Shchedrin, Bryullov, Repin, Surikov, Levitan, Serov, Korovin, Somov, Malyavin, N. Roerich. Goncharov. Kandinsky, Benois, Petrov-Vodkin, Chagall, Konchalovsky, Filonov, Falk, and so on, are represented. If we add to this collection the collection of the splendid Yerevanian Museum of Russian Art, that is the collection of Prof. Abram Abramian, then we can affirm that there exists in Armenia the third most important collection of Russian art from the standpoint of wealth and quality, coming only after the Tretyakov Gallery and the Russian Museum.

As for the Department of Armenian art, it is quite difficult to characterise it. Perhaps we could concisely call it The Armenian Tretyakov Gallery." The works by Aivazovsky are displayed in the Armenian Department immediately following the halls displaying Russian art, thus organically connecting the art of the two peoples.

The first display of pictures — seven works by the great maritime painter — was received by the Gallery from Moscow in 1922, that is from the House of Armenian Culture formed from the Institute of Eastern Languages or Lazarev Institute, founded by Ovakim Lazarev at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Highly appreciative of this centre of education and maintaining contact with it. Aivazovsky presented the Institute with paintings, which he considered to be the best.

Soon, thirty notable works — three of them by Aivazovsky — were given to the Gallery by the Muscovite, Jacob Ekizler (Akop Ekizian). Soon afterwards, the largest canvas of the painter, "Calm in the Mediterranean Sea." was brought to Yerevan. This was a gift from G. Khorasanjian from Belgium.

During the war, the Gallery of Feodosiya, named after Aivazovsky and saved due to the efforts of its director, Nikolay Barsamov, was evacuated to Yerevan, where a large exhibition was opened.

The Yerevanian collection of the works of the great master was increased particularly quickly after 1950. In 1958, the collection of Abraham Jinjian from France arrived in Armenia — there were about forty works by Aivazovsky. The latest gifts came from Milan ,paris , geneva and new york. During half a century, the gallery bought only one picture of the great maritime painter — all the others were presented.

In the centre of Yerevan, in Republic Square, a nine-storied building of white stone is situated. When you go from hall to hall, from one floor to another, you are unconsciously haunted by a thought: this huge museum is verily the offspring of national devotion.

When you think what feelings the mystery of the sea evokes in Man, how this eternal duet of water and light affects you, you come to the conclusion that from out of the caravan of the great masters of the brush, there inevitably should have appeared a master who would completely devote his genius to the free element, as Pushkin referred to the sea, and become its devoted singer. This mission was given to Ivan (Hovhanness) Aivazovsky.

Maybe the most alluring image of love which Nature bears is the borderline between water and dry land, where water circumscribes the earth, and the earth circumscribes the line of water. The horizon, taking off from the shore and stretching far into the distance, connects Man with the awesome endlessness of the universe, and here, right here, one acutely feels the miracle of his fleeting life.

This feeling promotes a love of the sea; it is unfathomable. Maybe it is because the sea itself, as a phenomenon of Nature, is unfathomable. This blue element with its eternal restlessness and immobility comprises a mystery. Aivazovsky managed to comprehend it. This determined his immortality as a painter.

"The sea is my life," said Aivazovsky. who passionately and, indeed, deified and worshipped this object of his indefatigable love. Having tremendous energy and application, he created about 6,000 paintings over many decades. His creative work is like a sea encyclopaedia. This encyclopaedia lets us see in great detail all the states of the watery element.

Having such a giant amount of work to do and working with material which was practically changeless, the painter could not avoid repetitions. On many occasions he concentrated on one and the same subject, on one and the same theme, sometimes varying the portrayal, both of their colouration and composition, and sometimes he duplicated them. Aivazovsky executed many lesser works which did not do justice to his talent, but he was well aware of this fact. Indeed, today, after many years, it is indisputable that the best works of Aivazovsky have not only stood the test of time, but have won him a place amongst the most prominent masters of his epoch. His willingness to indulge the salon tastes of his clients did not increase his authority in his professional field, and it cast a shadow over his reputation and occasioned a great number of critical remarks to be made about him. reverberations of which are heard even nowadays.

No doubt, only one carefully selected exhibition would be enough to ensure that the painter could be represented before us with all the splendour of his creative ideas and his consummate masterhood. To blame him for working too hard and of being insufficiently varied is incorrect. Aivazovsky said, "If I was to live another 300 years, I would always find something new in the sea."'

There is one remarkable detail. The authors, highly appreciating the creative work of Aivazovsky, avowedly admire his talent. However, even the critics of Aivazovsky still cannot deny his talent.

The attitude of both the former and the latter to the creative gift of the master can be compared only with the attitude of the master himself to the sea.

Years, having passed into the Lethe, leave only their essence to their descendants, and the following generations inherit the high spiritual ideals of their ancestors. The heritage of a painter develops according to the same laws. In our arduous and restless times, when a person thinks about his origin — the earth in its primeval shape — as about Paradise, the creative work of an original painter, celebrating the primeval beauty of the earth, becomes imbued with a new symbol and significance.

Aivazovsky became a famous Russian painter and, having arranged more than one hundred exhibitions in many European and American cities, brought great fame to Russian art. There was and still is much written about him as a representative of the Russian school; and even nowadays, Russian painting cannot be imagined without his name, in the same way that it is impossible to separate from modern American art the originator of abstract expressionism, Arshile Gorky (Vosda-nik Adoian), and from French art, that member of the French Academy, Carzou (Karnik Zulumian). Genuine art is always international. However, exemplifying the inner world of Man, his nature, thoughts and tensions, a work of art very naturally and essentially embodies the features which, having their origin in the national character of the author, in most cases determine his identity. These features and peculiarities make the painter an exemplar of the people who produced him. "Continuing the traditions of the greatest Russian landscape painters of the first half of the 19th century," writes N. Novouspensky. "and imitating nobody, Aivazovsky created his tradition and

his school. In his creative work there were expressed features of the national character, as well as the ancient culture of the Armenians, whose devoted son the painter remained until his death. Unfortunately, the national characteristics portrayed in the art of the great maritime master, his connection with the Armenian ethos and his exclusive role in the development of Armenian art, went practically unnoticed in Russian researches. The fact of the matter is that the richest Armenian sources which illuminated the life and creative strivings of Aivazovsky are still not translated. The same thing can be said about a great number of letters which were written by the painter in his native language, which he knew perfectly.* In the meantime, as if to consider the connections of Aivazovsky with both Russian and Armenian life in parallel, a complete and voluminous image of a painter and a citizen, viewed against the background of an epoch filled with despotism, appears before us.

Any nation creates its own inimitable song of the sea. This song sounds in poetry and music; it also sounds in painting. The Armenian people created their own song of the sea.

Armenia is a country of the mountains, but since ancient times legends and fables were composed which were devoted to the sea. One of the favourite heroes of folklore — Sanasar—was born from the sea which bestowed on him great strength.

From generation to generation, a love of the sea was the national feature of Armenia. The lakes, Van and Sevan, are still called in Armenian, "seas." Since ancient times, the Armenians associated the sea with freedom and rescue. Is it not because of this association that they strived to the seashores — to Cilicia and Crimea, to Constantinople and Athens, to Venice and Marseilles — when they had to leave their motherland? Perhaps this traditional love can explain

the appearance of a constellation of Armenian maritime painters in our time. Aivazovsky was the founder of this constellation.

By the 14th and 15th centuries, Feodosiya, formerly Kafa, became an important centre of Armenian culture. Here, as well as in Poland, there lived many Armenians who had escaped fromAni, a mediaeval Armenian capital, and from Cilicia and different regions of Western Armenia, during the destructive invasions by the Seljuqs and the Mongols at the time of the Ottoman Empire.

The Armenians of Feodosiya, who constituted the greater part of the population of the city, not only played an important role in the economic and political life of the Crimea, but actively developed the national traditions of architecture and popular and written art. There were twenty-seven Armenian churches in Feodosiya. The Crimean school of the miniature occupies an important place in Armenian painting. The cosmopolitan Feodosiya, and the villages surrounding it verily became a motherland for thousands of Armenians. It was not by chance that in Genoese sources this place is called "Littoral Armenia" (Armenia maritima).*

In the Crimea, after it had beenjoined to Russia in 1783, auspicious conditions were created for the Armenian population. Besides this, the mountain scenery of the peninsula reminded one of Armenia, and more and more refugees were attracted there. On the initiative of Catherine II, a considerable number of Armenians were relocated on the banks of the Don, where they were given essential charters consisting of exemptions and immunities. There, according to the plan of Vasilyevsky Island, they built the city of Novonakhi-chevan which is now a Proletarian region of Rostov-on-Don. Subsequently, the great painter Martiros Sarian was born in this city. It is known that during the 18th century, Aivazovsky's ancestors moved from Western Armenia, the Turkish part, to the south of Poland. At the beginning of the 19th century, a salesman called Constantine (Gevorg) Gaivazovsky moved to Feodosiya. On 17th July 1817, it was written in the register of births at the local Armenian Church that "Hovhanness, Gevorg Aivazian's son" was born.* The boy's father, who already had two daughters and three sons, had a hard life following the epidemic of pestilence which was in Feodosiya in 1812, and he was helped by his wife Ripsime, a very good em-broideress, to feed the family.

The young Hovhanness revealed unique abilities for drawing and music, and he was capable at playing the violin. In particular, he became absorbed in copying etchings from a book about the struggle of the Greeks against the Ottoman Empire.

The Nationalist movement of the Greeks was especially agreeable to the Armenians, whose motherland was also subject to Ottoman power. That is why the inclination of the boy towards this theme was not accidental. Later he would return to it repeatedly.

As a young boy, Aivazovsky received his primary education in an Armenian parish school.

With the help of the mayor of Feodosiya, A. Kaznacheyev, who was to become a governor of Tavrida. he started out for St. Petersburg and entered the Academy of Arts. There he was taught by the well-known landscape painter, Maxim Vorobyev; in "battle class" - - a special class where young artists were taught to paint battle scenes — he was taught by A. Zauerveid; and for a short period of time he was taught by the maritime artist, F. Tanner, who had been invited from France.

The masterliness of Aivazovsky developed very quickly. The works exhibited during the years of his studies aroused everybody's interest, including that of Pushkin, who spoke very approvingly about them. Pushkin had met Aivazovsky at one of the academic exhibitions, and he had made a deep impression on the young painter. In 1837, having finished a course of studies and having been awarded a golden medal for a first class honours degree, Aivazovsky obtained the right to go abroad, with a grant from the Academy. However, at first the young painter was sent to the Crimea to paint scenes of seafront cities. Sailing on capital ships, Aivazovsky became acquainted with the admirals, M. Lazarev, F. Litke, V. Kornilov, P. Nakhimov, and P. Panfilov, and acquired a deep belief in the power of the Russian fleet, and consequently became an unsurpassed singer of its victories. The commission of the Academy was successfully carried out.

In 1840, Aivazovsky left for Italy. There he became acquainted with the shining figures of Russian literature, art and science — Nikolay Gogol, Alexander Ivanov, etc. Simultaneously, the circle of his Armenian acquaintances widened, and questions relating to the Armenian situation became increasingly important in his spiritual life.

When Aivazovsky arrived in Venice, he hastened to St. Lazarus Island to meet his elder brother, Gabriel,* a spiritual affinity with whom he had up to the end of his life. Gabriel had achieved prominence in the Brotherhood of Militarists by that time. This brotherhood or congregation, which still exists, was founded in the first half of the 18th century by the enlightened Armenian educator, Mkhitar Sebastatsy, who made this Brotherhood a centre for studies into the national history and culture, and a means whereby the European intelligentsia could become acquainted with it.

The residence of Aivazovsky in "Small Armenia," which was near to Venice, meant an intimate initiation for him into the hopes and aspirations of his people. Besides this, here, in the richly endowed library ofthe Brotherhood, the painter entered the amazing world of the Armenian "book miniature" for the first time, a world in which mediaeval manuscripts were adorned, and he came into contact with learned humanistic and freedom-based ideas. It is curious that on St. Lazarus Island, Byron often visited the Mkhitarists and learned the Armenian language with their help. Aivazovsky, who later came here frequently, was always given the room where the great poet had lived. As Armenia lives in the heart of this island, so this island lived as the symbol of Armenia in the heart ofthe painter until his last days.

From Venice, the young artist started out for Florence, then to Amalfi and Sorrento where he stayed in the house which much earlier belonged to Torquato Tasso. During the next two years, he lived alternately in Naples and Rome. In one of his letters Aivazovsky wrote, "I'm like a bee sipping from the flower garden." Italian nature and Italian art and museums verily became the second academy in the formation of Aivazovsky the painter. During all of his life he returned to the landscapes of Italy, to the harmonious existence in this country of Man and the sea, which were embedded in his memory as an example of beauty. Italy set the seal on all of his subsequent art.

Aivazovsky worked in Italy with great inspiration and created about fifty large paintings. They were exhibited in Naples and Rome, and generated a boom which brought fame to the young painter. The critics wrote that nobody up until his time had depicted light, air and water so vividly and authentically. "Chaos," by Aivazovsky, was honoured by being included in the permanent exposition of the Vatican Museum. Pope Gregory XVI gave the painter a gold medal. The English artist William Turner, renowned for his seascapes, devoted verses to Aivazovsky in which he called him a genius.

Aivazovsky also had great success in Venice and then in Paris. London, and Amsterdam. As the only representative of Russian art at the time, he took part in the International Exhibition organised in the Louvre, and he was the first foreign artist to become a knight of the Legion of Honour.

So, having left Russia to develop his talents. Aivazovsky returned to his motherland as a famous painter and a member of several academies. In St. Petersburg, the twenty-eight year-old master was honoured with several regalia; later, he was appointed artist to the Senior Naval Headquarters. The civil service duties were carried out effectively by Aivazovsky, as well as by his compatriots who achieved great success in the war and political field: Madatov, Ter-Gukasov, Shelko-vnikov. Serebryakov, Loris-Melikov, Bebutov, etc.

Immeasurable fame, easy circumstances and a royal palace did not attract the young academician. He decided to leave St. Petersburg forever and to make his home in his native city. This decision, which surprised everybody and which is very important for understanding the inner world of the painter and his strivings, had its own motives.

On the one hand. Aivazovsky wanted to remain faithful to himself. His heart was with that Russia which was epitomised for him by Pushkin. Gogol. Krylov, Bryullov, Belinsky, Glinka and the Decembrists, and later by Repin. Kramskoy. and Tretyakov, with most of whom he had warm and friendly relations. The creative freedom that he enjoyed was "a rare exception in the times of Nicholas's Russia," as the artist's biographer, N. Barsamov, wrote, and 'Aivazovsky only managed to obtain it due to his great diplomatic skill.

On the other hand, his native hearth attracted him as it would for any other Armenian. He yearned for his childhood haunts, for the Black Sea, and for his Mother. The painter went to Feodosiya

not only to be nearer to his compatriots, but also to be useful to them. Already into his years of study, constantly communicating with the Armenians of St. Petersburg and the Armenian communities in Russia, he learnt the history of the age-old oppression of his people. The success of the Armenian nationalist movement, which had risen in the 19th century, was connected, in Aivazovsky 's opinion as well as that of his progressive compatriots. exclusively with Russia. As a person who received wade fame, he realised his role in it- That is why in 1845 he wrote a letter to Echmiadzin, to the Supreme Patriarch of all Armenians. Catholicos Xerses Ashtaraketsi, with whom he had become acquainted in St. Petersburg. In this letter, he announced his readiness to serve his nation, its culture and "To acquaint with the actions of our Community, with the accuracy which is characteristic of a messenger."*

In Feodosiya, the painter built a studio-house on the shore. Here, in a small provincial town, surrounded by his relatives and isolated from any cultural centre, Aivazovsky created his own individual world, his "small motherland," with an atmosphere appropriate only to it, and which exists according to the laws which he himself, its master, established. He verily felt free in this cosy world. However, self-isolation played a negative role in his creative work. Aivazovsky stayed aside from the most important trends in Modern Art, and he did not realise his potential as a true innovator.

Aivazovsky proved himself to be an independent and original painter in Italy. The young master's tremendous success could be explained by the fact that his works were very surprising and concordant with the new tendencies of the European art. The sensual and emotional perception underlay his works. The novelty corresponding to the dreams of the public prevailed in the canvasses. That was the breath of coming Romanticism. It was not by chance that they attracted Delacroix's attention.

However, one should not forget that Aivazovsky was highly appreciated not only by the public. For two years he became the member of several European academies. Full of the genius of Romanticism, Aivazovsky, as well as many other romanticists, did not step aside from the academic doctrines. Very soon, a strong wave of Realism succeeded Romanticism, and then Impressionism came into being.

Following the dictates of his heart Aivazovsky created his own artistic language which was light and pure, as if the sea itself spoke it. This language gradually changed, the palette of the painter became lighter, and he instinctively approached "plein air" painting. However, his perception of the world never changed. He did not set new artistic tasks for himself; he did not take a pattern by his contemporaries and he had no interest in new developments. He for ever remained devoted to his imaginative visions and youthful fervour or, to be more exact, to the artistic lessons of the sea which he had already been given in childhood.

The sea was his element; the painter's soul was open only for it. However, Aivazovsky thought that it was impossible to reproduce the sea as it is, and that is why he never painted directly from Nature, but relied only on his own imagination. The painter who saw his own life reflected in the water element did not depict a genuine sea, but created his own sea on the canvasses; he told his own tale of the sea, imposing on it his own feelings, moods and dreams. The fabulousness of his art was very explicitly noted by the great psychologist Dostoevsky in his article, 'The Exhibitions of 1860-1861 at the Academy of Art."

Indeed, in the maritime painter Aivazovsky, there is something of the storyteller, as his creative method was predetermined to a great degree by a popular poetic perception of Nature inherited from his ancestors. In the painter's soul there were as many of these extreme and changeable "tales," and as many different forms as their prototype, the sea, has at any time of the day and in different types of weather. Nature and Man with his cosmogenic thought are closely united for Aivazovsky, this amalgam acquiring a vertiginous abundance of images which, verily, partook of genius in their brightest flashes and revelation. Whenever Aivazovsky was standing before the easel, he gave free scope to his imagination. At these minutes he forgot about all the doctrines and canons. It was his skill and talent that were his own instruments. It is the things he saw in the mind's eye that were reflected on his canvasses.

Thus for Aivazovsky, he had entered the realm of Modern Art, but he obeyed his own canons on the perception of the artistic world.

Conventionality is the basis of these canons. Against the background of the realism of the 19th century, Aivazovsky's painting appears very romantic. The creative thought of the master is decorative; his childhood, his blood and his origin condition all of this. However, this does not spoil Aivazovsky's art, but helps the painter with his emotional description of events. The perfect results are achieved with the help of consummate and unusual colour nuances, and here he is without rival. This is the reason why he was compared with Paganini. Aivazovsky is the master of colour. He acquired his elementary knowledge of painting at the Academy, constantly developing it until he reached the acme of perfection. In general, in the art of Aivazovsky, the canons of the European School are combined with his natural and purely national and decorative intuition. This combination enables the painter to achieve, very convincingly, the saturation of a light and airy atmosphere, with perfect colour harmony. Probably, it is from this unique combination that the appealing charm of his paintings originates.

In the immense heritage of Aivazovsky, views of the stormy sea hold a very prominent position. As a rule, whilst depicting a boisterous sea, the painter also depicted people helping one another in the fight against it. 'A man never gives in, a man will win" — this motto of the painter reflected people's optimism and life-endurance. The basis of Aivazovsky's romanticism was twofold. It was firstly in his conviction that Man — a mote of the universe — had a great belief in Nature and in Life, and secondly and particularly, it lay in his undiminished belief in his nation, which struggled obdurately for its independence during the political storms of the 19th century. We cannot forget that allegory plays an important part in the painter's work.

When Martiros Sarian was young, he met a hoary-headed Aivazovsky in Novonakhiche-van. He always remembered this meeting and later wrote. "His art is the art of the victory of Man and humanity, the abnegation of despotism and violence. Aivazovsky is a painter with a great striving for freedom and of its apotheosis. In all the storms depicted by Aivazovsky, the sea appears as Dame Nature. Is it by chance that even in the most dramatic moments, his storms do not make the observer fear, strive to fight against them or feel hatred towards them? Actually, the storms of Aivazovsky create a dreamlike love of Nature.

The charming and light atmosphere of the canvasses of Aivazovsky help one to perceive the dreaminess and emotionality of his art. The painter sees Man as part of Nature. In his pictures, Man is depicted either against the background of a calm, placid sea. walking alone along the shore, or sitting in a boat looking dreamily at the light. It is not difficult to see self-portrait features in these fictitious, romantic characters of his pictures.

Light, as an idea, plays an important part in Aivazovsky's creative work. An attentive observer feels that depicting the sea, clouds and atmosphere, the painter, in fact, depicts light. Light in his art is a symbol of life, hope and belief, a symbol of eternity. This is nothing other than a re-evaluation, in his own fashion, of the idea of creative light, the light of cognition, which has a timeless and lasting tradition in Armenian culture, and which experienced a brilliant resurgence in the art of the later Armenian Masters.

This tradition was taken by Aivazovsky from mediaeval chants which praised the sunrise, and which he knew very well and heard constantly in Armenian churches. It is not accidental that, in speaking about his paintings he said, "The paintings in which the principal power is the light of the sun should be considered the best." In the later canvasses by Aivazovsky, the light emanates from an indiscernible source, tearing the darkness like a powerful aigrette.

One day, in conversation with Martiros Sarian, Ilya Edinburg asked if Aivazovsky's nationality was reflected in his creative work. Sarian said, "No matter what awful storm we see in his picture, in the upper part of the canvas, through the accumulation of thunder-clouds, a ray of light always breaks through, and though it is

thin and weak, it announces deliverance. It is the belief in this Light

. that the nation of Aivazovsky carried through the ages. It is this light

which contains the meaning of all the storms depicted by Aivazovsky."* We have already mentioned above, that conventionality is the

basis of Aivazovsky's colour expression, which is in harmony with his light and free drawings. On one and the same canvas, the painter created in a surprisingly pure manner works which are striking with their splendid decorative sounding, with combinations of red, blue, yellow, green and pink. Looking at such works, one often forgets about the subject of the painting, perceiving it only as a song of colour, as an ode of beauty. Aivazovsky's striving to express a palpitating idea with the help of colour found its application only in the painting of a new time.

N. Barsamov wrote, 'Aivazovsky sometimes built the colouration of the picture on the antithesis of the main colours of the palette, and attained in this way a great chroma and brightness of colour. In his leaning to bright colouration, which sometimes acquired the character of acute, gingery and heated combinations, there can be seen an innate inclination in a specific direction

which can be explained, to a certain extent, by his origin and the surroundings in which he grew up. This occurred in the middle of the last century, but it was a phenomenon of a similar kind to the art of Sarian at the beginning of the XX century.

The passionate, penetrating and poetic work of Aivazovsky, brought into Russian painting a fresh breath. The painter became

one of the most acknowledged representatives of the Russian art throughout the world. He was the second person, after Orest Kiprensky. to be allowed the honour of presenting a self-portrait for the Pitti Palace Gallery in Florence.

However, in Russia from the 1870s onwards, the art of Aivazovsky sustained more and more criticism. V. Stasov accepted only the early period of his work. Alexandre Benois in his The History of Russian Art of the 19th Century" wrote that although Aivazovsky was considered to be a pupil of Maxim Vorobyov, he stood apart from the general developments of the Russian landscape school. Such conclusions were not made simply because Aivazovsky worked alone, far from the centres of art, and that he showed his pictures principally at one-man, personal exhibitions.

The truth of the matter is that poetics and the world perception of Aivazovsky did not altogether coincide with the tendencies in the development of Russian Culture. In the first half of the 19th century, Russian art possessed a bright and clearly expressed national character. With the Peredvizhniki — that is the Wanderers — in Russian Art, there appeared a democratic realism, and the coryphees of great and realistic literature came forth. As for Aivazovsky, he still repeated his "tales" of the sea, which were natural and normal for him. However, according to his own admission, these tales seemed fictitious and unnatural to the younger generation. New works, landscapes with their palettes close to nature — the result of imagination — could hardly give the author a place among Russian realists. This, no doubt, does not negate the close connections of the prominent maritime master with Russian art, and, moreover, his role in it. Stasov said, 'Aivazovsky accomplished his work, and he directed others towards a new way. "* Anyhow, this critique was of sufficient significance that afterwards Russian research on art did not contain any significant material about Aivazovsky for a long time. The arguments around his art were rounded off by a well-known saying of Ivan Kramskoy, who knew the painter better than most, and who had painted his portrait on several occasions: "Aivazovsky. no matter what one says, is a star of the first magnitude, and not only in our country, but in the history of art in general."*

In Armenia, Aivazovsky was and is considered to be an Armenian painter as naturally as he is considered within Russia to be a Russian painter. The creative individuality and world perception of this great maritime master, with the help of his own national roots, were already connected during his lifetime with Armenian culture. It is necessary to say here that the national basis of art is most felt in formal and stylised principles, and in the expressiveness of the language. The artistic language of Aivazovsky, as well as of all Armenian painters of the 19th century, Stepan Nersesian, Gevorg Bashinjaghian, Panos Theremezian, Vartkes Sureniants, and Stepan Agajanian, etc., was formed under the influence of the European and Russian academic schools. Armenian culture in general developed during the past century mainly out of Armenia in the cities with substantial Armenian populations — Tiflis, Constantinople, Cairo, Paris, Moscow, and Baku. As for native Armenia, its precarious political situation did not promote the appearance of centres of culture; none of the Armenian painters worked in their Motherland.

Since the second quarter of the 19th century, after the Russian-Turkish and especially the Russian-Persian wars, with the joining of eastern Armenia to Russia, the Armenians experienced an expansion of public and spiritual life. Having been for many centuries under a foreign yoke, their hope of deliverance now became connected with Russia. Armenian culture was now developing in a new way, away characterised by a close rapprochement with European and Russian art, and which was, first of all, reflected in its literature. As for its art, it has always been specific and, since ancient times, had connections with the Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Russian cultures; it could not choose a different way in the period of its revival.

Getting their professional education in European and Russian educational institutions, Armenian painters brought into their national art new methods of delineation and, accommodating them to their temperament and views, they found appropriate applications for them. The process of interaction is the basis of the progressive advance of world culture, and with its help, the national language of art gradually reaches its fullest manifestation. This process is a characteristic of different peoples, and certainly for Russian art in the 18th century and for Armenian painting which, in the 19th century, underwent a revival.

Aivazovsky, whose name was inseparable from the new stage of Armenian painting, contributed much to this process. He never denied belonging to Armenian art; indeed, on the contrary, he was proud of it. He painted pictures of Armenian subjects even in his early years, and in 1868, he realised his wish to return to the motherland of his ancestors. Travelling around Transcaucasia, the artist depicted mountain scenes, life in Tiflis—the Armenians numbered more than half of the population of Tiflis in those days, Lake Sevan, Ararat, and the Ararat Plain. These paintings laid the foundation for and stimulated the development of the landscape genre in Armenian painting. Among these paintings there is a large canvas, "The Descent of Noah from Ararat," where the delicate harmony of light tonation reproduces the freshness of the air penetrated with the morning light, as well as the greatness of the biblical land. Among the numerous paintings on Armenian subjects, the portraits of the painter's granddmother and his elder brother, Gabriel, of Catholicos Khrimian* and the head of the city of Novonakhichevan, A. Khalibian, especially attract the observer.The portrait of his wife anna Aivazovskaya — showed a light

artistic breath which was a characteristic of the maritime pictures of the master. Belonging to the Apostolic Church, and according to his religious belief, Aivazovsky created a number of paintings on biblical and historical subjects. Among the later ones may be mentioned "The Baptism of the Armenian People" and 'The Oath: Commander Vardan" which, in their time, adorned one of the Armenian churches in Feodosiya and aroused patriotic feelings in its congregation. The features characteristic of Aivazovsky's painting were reflected in a number of his landscapes devoted to the everyday life of Armenian shepherds, and in a genre painting, "View of Tiflis," in which national costumes and the custom of reeling on flat housetops attract the observer's attention.

By looking at Aivazovsky's creative work in general, one realises that it is impossible to consider Armenian art and its historical development without referring to his role in it. Looking at Aivazovsky simply as a Russian painter, without taking into consideration the Armenian origin of his art, one cannot fully understand his creative individuality. Thus, whilst belonging to Russian culture, he must be said to belong equally to Armenian culture as well.

The charitable and public activities, and the civil image of Aivazovsky are inseparable from his art. Very few people know that Aivazovsky was the first Russian painter to present personal exhibitions. The reasons that impelled him to this course were of a material nature. Although living in a modest way, Aivazovsky needed large amounts of money in order to help his compatriots. He deemed this to be his duty, and almost every year he presented exhibitions in large Russian and European cities. No matter where he went — to Moscow or St. Petersburg, to Novonakhi-chevan or Tiflis, to Turkey or Egypt, to France or the USA — he was always interested in the life of the Armenians who lived there, including figures in the art world, and he did his best to enlighten them.The indefatigable service of Aivazovsky to his nation, and the fame which accompanied his name gradually made his image a legend in the eyes of Armenians, and a symbol of national enlightenment. Due to his efforts, Armenian youth became more interested in painting, and painters and writers alike spoke about him with reverence.

However, the public and charitable activities of Aivazovsky were never one-sided. Having founded a new Armenian school and a printing-house in Feodosiya, and having built a new church and repaired an old one, he founded, at the same time, an art college and the Historico-Arche-ological Museum. He erected a chapel in memory of the hero of the Caucasus, General Kotlyarevsky, he developed the system for drinking-water in the city, and he promoted the building of the railway. Helping Armenian students and Turkish Armenians, as well as promoting the publication of precious works on Armenian history, he at one and the same time rendered assistance to the struggle of the Greek people. He helped the needy people of Odessa, Minsk, Florence, and Frankfurt, and he helped the students of the St. Petersburg Academy, the Red Cross, the invalids from the Sevastopol battle, and the families of Russian soldiers who had been killed. His motto, 'To have in order to help," enables us to see in him a real son of the romantic century and an exceptional personality.

The biography of Aivazovsky contains a number of enlightening and little-known episodes. We would like to dwell on two of them.

In the 1840s, the painter, together with Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaevich, travelled about Greece and Turkey. Besides meetings in high circles of state, they communicated with the Armenians living in those countries, and in Constantinople they spent a night in the house of David Savalanian. Having learnt about the closing of Armenian colleges because of a lack of money, Aivazovsky used his authority, his acquaintanceship with, and the presence of, the Grand Duke to raise funds, and within a year a college was opened. Something similar to this also took place in Smyrna: and in Bursa. the artist produced a painting, where he depicted Gregory the Enlightener, who established Christianity in Armenia in 301. especially for the Armenian church, which had suffered from a fire, and at the same time he created a picture for the Armenian calendar, which was published in Constantinople.

In 1857, Aivazovskv. together with his brother, visited Constantinople. For those in Armenian circles, the meetings with Aivazovsky were like holidays. On one occasion he presented the chief architect of Turkish palatial construction, Sargis Balian,*

with one of his works; the latter then presented it to the sultan, Abdul-Aziz, a great lover oi painting. The enraptured sultan sent to Feodosiya, through Balian, a commission for a series of paintings with scenes of the Bosporus. It should be mentioned that the beauty of the city on the Bosporus made a great impression on Aivazovsky, and he thought that its beauty eclipsed the beauty of Venice and Naples. Hoping to do some good for his compatriots living in Turkey, Aivazovsky executed the order and was decorated with the highest Turkish order. "Osmani." According to the painter, he produced forty works for the sultan and. in addition, presented a picture to the art school which had been founded in Constantinople by the Armenian sculptor, Ervand Voskan. It is noteworthy that the peace treaty of 1878 between Russia and Turkey was signed in a hall adorned with the canvasses of Aivazovsky.

Reading through the correspondence of Aivazovsky. and trying to imagine the volume of his activity, one cannot help but be surprised at how consistently and. at one and the same time, diplomatically he promoted his humanistic ideas, and how. with the power of his art, he strived to become a world apostle to the North and the South, to the West and the East. Serving humanity, he served his own people as well, as he called it. to his "dear calling land."

A genuine painter always cherishes something sacred in his soul. The political situation and the official position of "painter" caused Aivazovsky to hide his feelings. This man, calm and balanced on the surface and holder of several decorations, was quite different in the depths in his soul. That is why his contemporaries, including A. Chekhov, remarked on his "complicated" character. N. Barsamov wrote, "With all his responsiveness, affability and kindness, Aivazovsky didn't have any intimates among painters. A shade of loneliness - - even if it sounds strange in relation to such a lively man as Aivazovsky — was present throughout all of his life. In his character and in his relations with the people around him, there was something that wasn't fully revealed and understood.

All subsequent historical events explain in many ways what his life was, and what things were most dear to him. They explain his hopes and disappointments, his reticence and his loneliness. When, in 1877, the Russian army captured Kars and part of Western Armenia, the Armenians accepted this news with exultation. After Greece. Serbia, and Bulgaria had been freed from the Ottoman yoke, it seemed that it was next the turn of Armenia, and that its long cherished hopes were about to come true, hi the victory of the Russian fleet over Turkey, which was glorified by the painter. Aivazovsky saw the way of the liberation of his historical Motherland. Whilst depicting sea battles, the patriotic Aivazovsky also tried to portray the participants of the battles on the eastern front. Among them was General Ter-Gukasov, and at this time he started working on the picture. "The Capture of Kars at Night." This action, which was not the duty of the painter as he was attached to the naval staff, very clearly expressed the general national enthusiasm with which Aivazovsky was possessed. His art was at the peak of its development. During these years, there appeared The Black Sea," which breathed universal calm, and a cycle of paintings devoted to Pushkin. Also, during this time, 1880, Aivazovsky built a "Gallery" under his house - - the third museum in the Russian Empire.

In 1882, having received from Echmiadzin permission for a divorce from his first wife, and having married Anna Burnazian, the painter admitted that as a result of this second marriage, "he became even closer to his people. "* And indeed, Aivazovsky turned himself more frequently to Armenian themes and embarked upon

energetic activity. His connections with the leading figures of Armenian culture became warmer and more active, and he propagandised the art of Armenian actors, musicians and painters. Aivazovsky's house in Feodosiya became a place of pilgrimage. Here, Armenian writers stayed whilst on visits, and Armenian actors and musicians demonstrated their mastery on the stage of the exhibition hall. In the Gallery, together with famous musicians and actors such as Rubinstein, Venyavsky, Varlamov, and Sazonov, the tragic actor Petros Adamian played, as did violinist Hovhanness Nalbandian. who was to become a professor of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, as did composer Alexander Spendiarov, with whom Aivazovsky sometimes played violin duets. Not only was a remarkable pleiad of Armenian maritime masters formed here, but almost all the Armenian artists of the second half of the last century received their approbation here. According to V. Sureniants, Aivazovsky dreamed of creating a union which would unite the figures of Armenian art scattered all over the world.

It would seem that life had settled down. However, in the middle of the 1890s, having decided to put an end to The Armenian Question," Sultan Abdul-Hamid embarked upon a massacre, the victims of which were hundreds of thousands of Armenians. The cultural monuments were burned and destroyed, and a deadly blow was inflicted upon the dreams cherished by the Armenian people, and upon the romantic illusions held by its intelligentsia. These terrible events shook Aivazovsky, and what was in his soul revealed itself. In a letter sent to Catholicos Khrimian in Echmiadzin, the painter wrote, 'The unprecedented and unheard of slaughter of poor Armenians darkened my heart with deep pain." The painter created a number of paintings: "The Massacre of the Armenians in Trebizond," "Night: The Tragedy at the Sea of Marmara," and so on, and exhibited them in Moscow and Odessa. His everyday concern became the provision of shelter for those Armenians who had escaped the slaughter and who had come to Feodosiya. "It's shameful to turn away from your own people," V.S. Krivenko quotes the painter's words, "especially so small in number and so oppressed." Further on he wrote, "The source of painful feelings for Aivazovsky was the thought of those acts of violence which the Turks had committed on the defenceless and wretched Armenians. He didn't stop believing, didn't stop hoping that people's hearts would be moved, that Europe, at last, would stand up for them and not let the Turks completely destroy the poor people."* Malutin wrote in his diary, 'Aivazovsky accused Russian policy-makers, and Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky in particular.

The painter threw his Ottoman orders into the sea and told the Turkish consul to say to his "bloody master," "If he wants, let him throw my paintings into the sea: I won't feel sorry.

Feelings which the great humanist experienced were expressed in his later seascapes. Napoleon on the island of St.

Helena is depicted alone and on a rocky shore, bathed in the rays of the sun as if it is the painter himself who, standing motionless before the element which was so dear to his heart, stopped to look at an eagle flying freely over the depths. The picture, "Amidst the Waves," is one of the best of the heritage of Aivazovsky. and can be perceived as the volcanic flash of a restless soul, whilst the painting, "Explosion of the Turkish Ship." which was started on the last day of the painter's life, 2 May 1900, and remained unfinished, is like a clot of blood and anger.

Towards the end of his life, having organised his last exhibition in St. Petersburg, the painter decided to go to Italy saying, "My beginning was illuminated by this country, and now I want to relive my youth again."

However, the dream of the great maritime master was not to come true, although he created a painting which was connected with his hopes as a youth. This was "Byron's Arrival on the Island of St. Lazarus." Here, the great figures of Armenian thought, united in a powerful group, greet the singer of freedom in "Small Armenia."

According to Aivazovsky's will, he was buried in Feodosiya, in the graveyard of the Surb Sargis church, where he had been baptised and married. On his gravestone there is an inscription, "Professor Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky. 1817-1900." Above it, the words of the fifth century historian, Movses Khorenatsy, carved in ancient Armenian script say, "Born mortal, but after his death an immortal memory."

Grateful generations will keep this memory.

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