Ivan Aivazovsky (1817-1900) is a Russian landscape painter, an unsurpassed maritime painter in spite of the fact that he is Armenian by origin. In 1837 Ivan Aivazovsky graduated at the Petersburg Academy of Applied Arts. He attended classes of the landscape-painter M. N. Vorobyev. In 1840 he went to Italy, then he visited France, Spain, Portugal, Holland, England. In 1844 Aivazovsky returned to St. Petersburg as well an artist who was recognized by all Europe, as the Roman Parisian and Amsterdam academies member. On a native land he was also awarded with a rank of the academician, and then he was appointed artist to the Senior Naval Headquarters. In 1845 he went away from St. Petersburg and finally he put up at his native land Feodosiya, having chosen the most favorable conditions for creativity. In 1847 Ivan Aivazovsky was recognized as the professor of Academy of Applied Arts. In the cities of Europe and America there had been more than 120 personal exhibitions only before his death. Ivan Aivazovsky created about six thousand pictures.
