The unfading star of Ivan Aivazovsky: The grandchildren of the famous grandfather who became professional artists

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The great marine painter Ivan Aivazovsky there were four daughters who made him happy with ten grandchildren. Children from early childhood, visiting the house of Ivan Konstantinovich, saw how in their huge workshop. The genius master gave this unique gift to his four grandchildren, who became professional artists.

How Ivan Aivazovsky became an artist himself

The eminent master himself, who at birth received the name Hovhannes, was born in the middle of the summer of 1817 in Feodosia, in the family of the head of the city market Gevork Ayvazyan and his wife Hripsime. The ancestors of the future artist were from Galician Armenians. After settling in Crimea, his father began to write his last name in the Polish way - "Gaivazovsky", which later transformed into "Aivazovsky". The boy showed artistic talent from childhood. And who knows how the fate of the genius would have developed, if not for one incident that completely influenced the life of a teenager from a poor Armenian family.

One early morning, the head of the city of Feodosia, Alexander Ivanovich Kaznacheev, circling the city, noticed that the fence of one institution was painted with coal. The drawing depicted a fisherman, a boat and a net. Kaznacheev ordered to paint over the fence, but the next morning he again saw a drawing on the fence, but already depicting a basket with fish. The mayor got angry in earnest and ordered to put a policeman at the "crime scene".

On the same night, the bully was caught: he turned out to be a 12-year-old black-haired Armenian teenager - Hovhannes. Noticing an outstanding talent in the boy, Kaznacheev took him to live with him and sent him to the gymnasium. In addition to artistic abilities, the teenager also showed musical data. Vanya had an excellent command of the violin, while he was trying to put it on its knee, as the musicians did in the Feodosiya market.

The trustee, deciding to arrange the fate of Ivan after graduating from the gymnasium, sends his drawings to St. Petersburg to his friend. And quite soon an answer came from him: "The works were considered by the selection committee of the Academy of Arts and Gaivazovsky was credited to the state account." The city on the Neva gave a warm welcome to the talented young man.

The rumor about the amazing talent of the Crimean nugget even reached the Emperor Nicholas I, who personally recommended him to the French marine painter Philip Tanner as a student. Moreover, Ivan, who dreamed of a career as a portrait painter, did not even try to object to the sovereign.

Subsequently, Ivan will become a famous marine painter and will write more than 6,000 paintings in his entire creative life.

Of the ten grandchildren of Aivazovsky, four followed in his footsteps and became professional artists - these are Mikhail Latri, Alexey Ganzen and Konstantin Artseulov, Nikolai Artseulov.

Mikhail Pelopidovich Latri

Mikhail Latri was born in 1875 in Odessa in the family of the eldest daughter Elena Ivanovna. Mikhail spent his childhood in Feodosia, on the estate of his grandfather, where he was brought up in a creative atmosphere. The first mentor and teacher of little Misha was an eminent grandfather, from whom a talented grandson took over a passion for seascapes and a refined artistic taste.

With the assistance of his grandfather, Mikhail entered the Academy of Arts, in the class of Arkhip Kuindzhi. In 1897, Mikhail dropped out and went on a tour of the cities of Greece, Italy, Turkey, France. For some time he had to study in Munich.

And two years later, having returned to Russia, he was reinstated at the Academy as an "auditor". He took a great interest in impressionism and painted wonderful landscapes in various painting techniques. Latri adhered to the Munich school of painting in his works. Many paintings from that period were dedicated to the Crimea and Greece.

Mikhail Latri, like his famous grandfather once did, spent the winters in St. Petersburg, and with the onset of spring, he left for the Crimea. In the early 1900s, the mother presented her son a land plot near Feodosia. In those years, Mikhail Latri was the public director of the Feodosia Picture Gallery.

After the revolution of 1917, Latri, on his own account, gave his estate to the peasants. Having moved to the city, he devoted himself entirely to his beloved work - painting. And in 1920, with the first wave of Russian emigration, Mikhail Latri left Crimea and settled in Greece. And later he moved to Paris and organized his own workshop.

In Europe, he has repeatedly exhibited his work in many famous galleries. He died in 1942 in Paris.

Alexey Vasilievich Ganzen

The son of Maria's second daughter, Alexei, was a marine painter, professor, and collector. In 1920 he emigrated from Odessa to Yugoslavia. He was a constant participant in all kinds of inserts in Italy, Czech Republic, Romania.

In 1922 he settled with his wife in Dubrovnik on the shores of the Adriatic Sea (now Croatia). There, the artist acquired a villa, which he named in honor of his wife - "Olympia". And for seventeen years, Hansen sang the beauty of the Adriatic in his canvases. Dubrovnik became his second homeland, where the artist died in 1937.

Konstantin Konstantinovich Artseulov

Another grandson of Aivazovsky, who followed in the footsteps of his grandfather - Konstantin Konstantinovich Artseulov was born in Yalta in 1891 in the family of a hereditary sailor. He spent his childhood under the tutelage of his grandfather and at the age of ten Kostya painted seascapes in oil.

His mother, Zhanna Ivanovna, the fourth daughter of the great marine painter, saw the boy as an artist, and his father prophesied to his son a career as a naval officer. Konstantin, fulfilling his father's will, had to graduate from a real school in Sevastopol and become a cadet in the naval corps. And some time later Konstantin Artseulov graduated from the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg.

But no matter what future his parents dreamed about, he eventually became a high-class aviator. In 1916, being a warrant officer, Konstantin Artseulov, on the Nieuport-21 plane, rose to a height of 1,500 meters above the ground and turned off the engine. The airliner quickly began to lose speed and got into a tailspin. After completing three turns, the pilot brought the plane into a dive, started the engine and gained altitude up to two thousand meters again repeated the breathtaking stunt. Only this time, in a state of a tailspin, he had already managed to complete five turns. Those who watched this gasped and held their breath.

When the plane landed for the pilot Artseulov, those present gave a thunderous ovation. And the educational committee of the Sevastopol school unanimously decided to include this maneuver to get the liner out of the spin in the curriculum.

After graduating from his career as an aviator, Konstantin Konstantinovich lived in Moscow and worked as a graphic designer. Collaborated with the publishing houses "Children's Literature", "Young Guard", where he illustrated about fifty books. He also created 240 covers of issues of the Tekhnika-Moloko magazine, drew illustrations for the magazines For Defense, Wings of the Motherland, Young Technician, and Modelist-Constructor.

Konstantin Konstantinovich Artseulov died in 1980, only two months before his 90th birthday.

Nikolay Konstantinovich Artseulov

Was born in 1889, was born in Odessa. He was a shipbuilder, like his paternal grandfather, and under the influence of his maternal grandfather he became a famous marine painter. Most of his work is associated with the navy.

He emigrated to the United States in 1921 and died in New York in 1956.

Aivazovsky Alexander Pellopidovich, grandson adopted by his grandfather

It is worth remembering another grandson of the genius artist - Alexander Latri, who was adopted by Ivan Konstantinovich.

The thought that the artist has no direct heir haunted him for many years. And at the end of his life, Aivazovsky turned with a petition to Tsar Nicholas II: the Emperor granted the artist's request, although Aivazovsky himself did not live to see it. Alexander Aivazovsky (Latri) - one of all the grandchildren was honored to bear the name of the famous grandfather. Not much information has survived about him to this day: he had nothing to do with art, and his name was mentioned in 1908 in the lists of the 17th Nizhny Novgorod Dragoon Regiment of the 2nd Caucasian Army Corps in the rank of a cornet, and in 1908 - in the rank of lieutenant of the same regiment.

The first honorary citizen of Feodosia

And finally, I would like to note that the inhabitants of Feodosia idolized Ivan Aivazovsky. After all, he not only glorified their city throughout Russia. The artist often had to baptize the children of fellow citizens, marry off their homeless daughters, and bury their relatives. In addition, Aivazovsky built a railway and a water supply to the city at his own expense. From ancient times in Feodosia it was much easier to get wine than water. And every day from the source of his estate for the use of the townspeople came 50 thousand buckets of water.

The artist also presented the city with a wonderful fountain and built a gallery for free visits. Therefore, it is not surprising that the inhabitants of the city literally bombarded their benefactor with flowers for each holiday, which were brought to his estate in whole carts. And when the artist died in May 1900 at the age of 82, all of Feodosia dressed in mourning, schools stopped classes, and many institutions were closed. Thousands of people wept bitterly, seeing off their benefactor on the last journey.

Personal life the genius artist was full of both suffering and great love.