bygone era
10 facts about the picture of Aivazovsky “The Ninth Wave”
We continue the project “The History of One Picture.” In it we tell about the most famous canvases from Petersburg museums. Today – “The Ninth Wave” by Ivan Aivazovsky.
Fact one. The author.
The great Russian artist Ivan Aivazovsky has Armenian roots. His ancestors bore the name Ayvazyan. He himself was recorded in the register as Hovhannes Ayvazyan. And his father signed the name “Gaivazovsky.” The same name when entering the art school and used the future painter. A few years later, he decided to drop the first letter – and became Aivazovsky.
Fact two. Official. Continue reading
“Morning in a pine forest” by Ivan Shishkin
The forest landscape with bear cubs playing on a fallen tree is perhaps the most famous work of the artist. Here are just the landscape design idea Ivan Shishkin suggested another artist – Konstantin Savitsky. He also wrote a bear with three bear cubs: bears could not succeed in the forest shishkin’s connoisseur.
Shishkin was immaculately versed in the forest flora, noticed the slightest mistakes in the drawings of his students — either the birch bark or the pine tree looked like a fake one. However, people and animals in his works have always been rare. Continue reading
The painting and its role in the art market
Inevitably come to mind the prophetic words of Andy Warhol, who recognized business in art and art in business. By this, the existence of the same motive, both in profit and in the creation of paintings.
Purchase of art can be compared only with a tape measure. In fact, the risk is not significant, the more valuable the picture, the greater the chance that in the future it will bring profit to its owner.
The art market is a very complex system. How to understand for example, when one billionaire sells another billionaire a picture for a hundred million or more. (In November 2006, David Geffen, a magnate from Hollywood, sold the picture of Woman III, artist William Koening, to billionaire Stephen A. Cohen for $ 137.5 million.) What is the point? Or when the same David Geffen, artist Jackson Pollock, for 140 million dollars .. Continue reading