Description
This portrait of Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky was painted in 1882. The work is done in oil on canvas. The work is in the Feodosia Art Gallery named after IK Aivazovsky, Feodosia.
In 1848, Aivazovsky married. On one of his visits to St. Petersburg, he was introduced to a very noble widow who had two daughters "to marry". The girls wanted to study painting with the famous artist. After some time, the widow began to notice that the artist was too diligent in his studies, often staying at home. The widow was already wondering which of the daughters the artist would prefer. However, all this was resolved in the most unexpected way - Aivazovsky married the governess, Yulia Yakovlevna Grevs.
A year after the wedding, their daughter Elena was born, in 1851 - Maria, and in 1858 - Jeanne. However, this marriage was not very happy.
Aivazovsky decided to settle permanently in Feodosia. In the twelfth year of married life, Yulia Yakovlevna left Aivazovsky, taking her four daughters with her: Alexandra, Elena, Maria and Zhanna. Only once in a while did he allow them to visit his father.
Friends tried several times to reconcile Aivazovsky with his wife, but everything was unsuccessful. Julia Grevs continued to slander her husband, even writing to the tsar asking him to force Aivazovsky to pay her three hundred rubles every month.
The marriage was dissolved in 1877.
Years passed, and on his way he met another woman, whom he once saw from the carriage, stopped by a funeral procession. The well-known merchant Sarkizov was buried in Feodosia. Behind the coffin was a widow, a strikingly beautiful young Armenian woman. A year later, Anna Nikitichna Sarkizova became Aivazovsky's wife. And although he was already 65 years old, Aivazovsky was passionately in love with his wife and really happy with her. Anna Nikitichna was almost 40 years younger than her husband, but natural touch, sensitivity, warmth distinguished this young woman who had not studied at all.
She admired her husband's art, she understood it, although she did not visit museums and did not read painting books. Aivazovsky's house came to life. Friends, artists, students gathered in it. They had no children.
Her beauty inspired Aivazovsky not only to create this portrait, which has been preserved in the gallery to this day.