Beschreibung:

IVAN KONSTANTINOVICH AIVAZOVSKY 1817-1900 Yalta from the beach, Ayu Dag behind Signed twice and dated 1881. Oil on canvas supported on panel. 26 x 36 cm PROVENANCE Private collection, Stockholm By repute gift from the Tsar Nicholaus II (1868-1918) to the politician Sergej Witte (1849-1915). Bought by the Swedish-lithuanian Leo Gurwyn employed at Alfa Laval and given as a birthday present to the chimney-sweeper Bror Blomkvist, Stockholm 8 September 1936, thereafter by inheritance in the same family. The picturesque seaside town of Yalta in the Crimea was painted repeatedly by Aivazovsky; his first depiction of it, now in the Theodosia Picture Gallery, dates from 1838. During his lifetime it grew from a small seaside town to one of Russia's most fashionable holiday resorts, especially after Alexander II bought the nearby estate of Livadia. Behind Yalta, and visible from the far end of the beach, the dramatic rock of Ayu Dag (Tartar for "Bear Mountain") rises from the sea. In the offered painting, Aivazovsky shows the scene shortly after sunrise, the air suffused with gold and purple. In 1881 Aivazovsky was in his early sixties, at the height of his fame, wealth and powers; he had just returned from London where he had held an exhibition that delighted Alma Tadema, Millais and others; but it was also a historical turning point for Russia, for it was in March of that year that the reforming, liberal minded Tsar Alexander II was murdered by a terrorist bomb; Imperial Russia was entering its last decades.