Happiness on the third try: How the artist Ivan Aivazovsky met his love in the cemetery

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

July 29 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding marine painter Ivan Aivazovsky (according to the old style - July 17). Probably, there is no person who would not be familiar with his work, but not everyone knows that the source of inspiration for the artist was not only the sea, but also another element that often led to shipwrecks in his personal life. He said that he got married just as he painted his best paintings - by inspiration. Love inspired him, but twice led to disasters. It was only after 65 years that he finally found what he had been looking for for so long.

The story of the artist's first love was overgrown with speculation, and today it is difficult to separate truth from fiction. It is known for sure that it was the Italian ballerina Maria Taglioni. Once a 20-year-old artist gape in the street and was hit by a carriage passing by. As it turned out, it was Maria's crew. She invited the young man to take him home and presented him with an invitation card to the theater. Since then, he began to attend all of her performances.

Maria reciprocated the artist's feelings, but she was embarrassed by the age difference - she was 13 years older than him. At first, their relationship was stormy and happy, but when he proposed to her, Maria refused. At that time, she was 38 years old, and she did not want to burden the young man with obligations.

Aivazovsky experienced a breakdown in relations for a very long time and painfully. At parting, the ballerina presented him with a pink ballet shoe, which he carefully kept until his last days. However, no written evidence has survived about their romance, so it is difficult to judge how everything actually happened. According to legend, Maria Taglioni loved Aivazovsky until her death and every year on Palm Sunday sent him a bouquet of lilies of the valley.

There were always many women around Aivazovsky who wanted to attract the attention of a famous and rich artist, but for a long time after parting with Taglioni, he did not notice any of them. At that time, many noble ladies considered him an enviable groom for their daughters. One of them invited him to give painting lessons, hoping that he would choose one of her daughters as his wife.

But this plan was only half realized: Aivazovsky really fell in love and made an offer, but not to one of the daughters, but to their governess Julia Grevs. The artist wrote to a friend: “… I got married as a true artist, that is, I fell in love like never before. It was all over in two weeks. Now, after eight months, I tell you that I am so happy that I did not imagine half of this happiness. The best pictures of mine are those that are inspired by inspiration since I got married."

At first, this marriage was very happy, the couple had four daughters. But Julia Grevs dreamed of shining in high society, besides, in Feodosia - the hometown of Aivazovsky, where they moved after the wedding - it was very difficult to find suitable parties for the daughters. Disputes between the spouses became more frequent, during which Julia took her daughters and left for St. Petersburg or Odessa. After 12 years of marriage, she finally decided not to return to Feodosia and stayed with her children in Odessa.

Preserved "Memorandum of Privy Councilor Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky on the divorce case", which says: "With a painfully irritable character, something like a line developed in Aivazovsky's wife - to complain, slander, dishonor her husband, not only in words and in private life, but and in writing, in numerous petitions and complaints, which, due to their groundlessness, could not have any other consequences except that cohabitation became further impossible, and in the last 20 years the spouses have hardly seen each other”.

The artist again felt abandoned and again experienced a hard parting. He was left alone and no longer expected to find his happiness, but fate gave him love in his declining years. He met his second wife and third love at the age of 65 … in the cemetery! He saw in the funeral procession a young woman following her husband's coffin, and unexpectedly for himself fell in love. Aivazovsky learned that she was the widow of a Feodosia merchant and her name was Anna Sarkizova (nee Burnazyan). After waiting for the time, as required by the limits of decency, he proposed to her, and his chosen one answered with consent.

Despite the 40-year age difference, the couple were very happy and lived in complete harmony until the artist's death. Anna accompanied her husband on all trips, did not dispute the paramount importance of painting for him, did not complain about the lack of attention. The only thing that the wife was unhappy with was Maria Taglioni's pink shoe, which the artist kept in a chest. After his death, she burned it. In the next 25 years, Anna doomed herself to voluntary seclusion, survived alone all the horrors of the early twentieth century. and never married again. She was buried next to her husband, in the very park of the Armenian church, where they were once married.

The work of this wonderful artist still leaves no one indifferent: secrets of 5 mystical paintings by Ivan Aivazovsky