Ivan (Yovhannes) Aïvazovski (1817-1900) et les neuf vagues qui ont bercé la peinture de paysage russe au XIX^e siècle

This short account of the life and work of the great marine painter Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky aims to highlight his role in the development of the genre of landscape painting in nineteenth century Russian art. He who endowed Russian art with seascapes and naval battle painting also became one of the best ambassadors of Russian culture of his time. Aivazovsky’s artistic longevity of more than sixty years makes it possible to observe the evolution and progression of Russian academic landscape painting in through his works. Originally derived entirely from European models at the beginning of the 19th century, it evolved towards a specifically Russian painting style by the end of the century. Focused on the successive waves of artistic movements that affected the nineteenth century in search of a Russian national art and particularly touched by romanticism and realism, he was able to play a key role in revisiting the place of landscape painting in the Russian Academy. Nevertheless, I also wanted to highlight a lesser-known Aivazovsky, not just the great marine painter but Aivazovsky the landscape painter, because even today we know only part of his heritage of six thousand paintings, scattered in museums and private collections throughout the world. This suggests that his work will still reveal unexplored aspects that will enrich our knowledge of art and culture of the nineteenth century.