Oil on canvas, height 120 cm
Royal Palace
The work of one of the most important Russian artists of the 19th century, Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky, Christ Walks on Water, belongs to the part of his opus illustrating the miracles of Christ, inspired by the sequences from the Gospel of Matthew. A monumental composition with a dramatic scene of Christ’s appearance in front of the apostles, in the stormy, turbulent sea. The drama of the scene is achieved not only by the sea landscape that merges with the dark sky, the petrified faces of the apostles, but also by the strong contrasts and light effects that further enhance the impression. Christ emerging from darkness and bringing forth a new light in this picture just emphasizes the idea of the divine presence.
Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky
Born in Teodosia, in Crimea, in 1817. He was one of the most important Russian painters of the Romanticism Epoch, known for masterful views of the sea and for his legacy of over 6,000 paintings that make a kind of encyclopedia of the sea. Aivazovsky studied at the Academy in Sankt Petersburg. In the 1940s he traveled to Western Europe: Italy, England, Spain and Germany, where he gained new experiences. Upon return, he became an academician at the Sankt Petersburg Academy of Sciences and joins the Russian Navy Headquarters. That enabled him to travel to Turkey, Asia Minor and Greece.
He died in his hometown in Crimea where he founded an art school towards the end of his life, which became one of the most important centers of art in Russia.
