(Theodosia 1817–1900)
A View of the Bosporus with the Hagia Sophia and the Maiden’s Tower in the Moonlight, signed and dated Aivazovsky 1884, monogrammed A, verso signed, inscribed and dated Aïvasovsky Vien 1884, oil on panel, 15.9 x 26 cm, framed

Provenance:
According to information supplied by the previous owner, his grandparents acquired the painting in Russia in around 1920;
Christie’s London, 25 November 2019, lot 57;
Private Collection Great Britain.

A technical certificate (October 2020) issued by Prof. Manfred Schreiner, Institute for Natural Sciences and Technology in the Arts (Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna), is available upon request.

We are grateful to Gianni Caffiero for his confirmation on the basis of the original.

We are grateful to Dr Olga Sugrobova-Roth for her scientific assistance.

This painting, executed on an expensive mahogany panel, signed three times and marked “Vien”, is linked to an episode in the life of the artist. When Aivazovsky happened to meet a chamberlain of Sultan Abd ül-Hamid II in Vienna, he realised that this old acquaintance from Constantinople missed his hometown terribly. Therefore, he painted a small image of the Golden Horn in the moonlight, and gave it to the young Turkish diplomat before the paint had completely dried: “I painted this quickly for you so you can look at it and not miss your beautiful Constantinople anymore”. (Gianni Caffiero, Ivan Samarine, Meere, Städte, Träume. Die Gemälde des Ivan Aivazovsky, Cologne 2002, p. 11.)
Despite its small format, this night view of Constantinople is of great density and comes alive with 32 figures (!) in the foreground.