The Battle of Navarino
Ivan Aivazovsky, 1846
For now, just to look at
The photograph we have of this work is not sharp enough to print at the quality we want, so we are not selling it for now. We are looking for a better one.
About the work
- Artist
- Ivan Aivazovsky
- Date
- 1846
- Reference
- XDV-2246
What the museum label doesn't tell you
Look at the sky first: it's not sky, it's fire eating smoke. Aivazovsky gives two-thirds of the canvas to that blaze while the ship up front, sails in tatters and hull torn open, still keeps its red flag standing. Appointed official painter to the Russian naval staff in 1844, he made this scene part of his chronicle of the fleet's exploits at Navarino. But what he's really painting isn't tactics or heroism, it's orange light devouring grey smoke. Would your eye land on the wreck first, or on the fire swallowing it?
