“Sailboat off the coast of Crimea on a lunar night,” Aivazovsky – overview of the painting 
- Posted by Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky
- Museum: Art culture of the Russian North
- Year: 1858
Overview of the painting :
Sailboat off the coast of Crimea on a lunar night – Aivazovsky. 1858. Oil on canvas. 47×64
The painting “Sailboat off the coast of Crimea on a lunar night” was painted in oil on canvas by Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky in 1858. By this time, the greatest artist-marinist has been living in Feodosia for more than ten years, where, with the money earned from the sale of his paintings, he opened an art school, which subsequently brought the glory of the Novorossiysk province (now the territory of Moldova and Ukraine) and became one of its art centers.
In the middle of the composition is a three-mast sailboat. A sea without movement, calm, quiet, not foreshadowing storms – only a slight wobble of the water surface that gives life in it. Sails are lowered on the ship. He, like the sea, is immovable. It seems that nature and man no longer compete with each other, but, on the contrary, merge into one.
The static nature of the picture is emphasized by a mountain range located on a long plane – right behind the ship. Mountains that destroy the linearity of the horizon, as if they say that not everything in the world is so simple and smooth, even if at first glance it looks just like that.
The colors in the picture are all shades of blue: from gently blue to almost turning into black, almost tar. What is surprising, the diversity of shades of the same color, symbolizing the sensual side of life of everything, convey to the viewer a simple truth: love has many faces regardless of whether a person is able to perceive them or not.
At the moment, the picture is stored in the State Museum Association. Art culture of the Russian north.