费奥多西亚。月夜

Aivazovsky was born in 1817 in Feodosia, an old port on the Crimean coast of the Black Sea, and after years in the capital he returned to live and work in the town for the rest of his life. This is that home town by moonlight, painted in 1852. A large low moon hangs over calm water, its light laid down the sea in a single bright path, with two sailing ships held in silhouette. Aivazovsky was famous for exactly this, the glowing, translucent water and skies he painted largely from memory, working fast without the sea in front of him. He built a gallery in Feodosia and left it to the town, and it still holds his paintings today.