The Tenth Wave. Ivan Aivazovsky | English

The Tenth Wave, Decuman Wave, Ivan Ivazovsky. In 1844, a very strong storm rose in the Bay of Biscay, near the shore of Spain. A ship under ensign of Imperial Russian Navy was on the verge of sinking. The next day, European newspapers reported the death of the famous Russian painter, Ivan Ivazovsky. But it appeared that the painter had survived. Furthermore, even the fear of death did not prevent him from putting into use his ability to grasp and retain in his memory a marvelous live picture of the furious sea. Ivazovsky transferred it to the canvas and created his most grandiose work, The Tenth Wave. Ivan Ivazovsky used to say, Sea is my life. He painted sea in storm and in calm, at the dawn and in the afternoon, in summer and in winter. He was recognized as the best European painter of so-called marines, sea sceneries. Nobody in the world before and after Ivazovsky has managed to depict light, air and water so truthfully and lively. It was as if the painter of seascapes felt the soul of the sea, and this soul had disclosed its secrets to him. Strangely enough, the painter knew only the language of the sea. His other landscapes were much worse, and all his attempts to paint a human being ended as failures. It is interesting to mention that Ivazovsky never painted from nature. He made notes about the peculiarities of color of water, bank and air. But scenes of future paintings remained imprinted in the master's phenomenal memory. In his opinion, movements of live jets are invisible for the paintbrush, and thus, it is absolutely impossible to paint a lightning or flaw or splash of wave from nature. Ivazovsky made about 6,000 paintings depicting water elements. He worked fast and with inspiration, freely improvising and filling the picture with his feelings and insights. Once Ivazovsky, in Kunji's academic studio, in the presence of students, had painted a scene of Black Sea in just two hours, and it took him 11 days to paint his most famous painting, the Tenth Wave. According to the ancient belief of sailors, Decuman Wave, the Tenth Wave, is the strongest and most dangerous wave during the storm. A small group of people, who survived the shipwreck, is fighting with the raging, furious, stormy ocean for their life. It is obvious that the salt waves that hit them the whole of the previous night had exhausted them fully. Only a fragment of mass remained from the ship that recently seemed so solid and reliable. One more huge wave with foaming crest is unavoidably approaching this small and fragile island of hope. Nevertheless, in spite of the graveness of the situation, the picture does not evoke any feeling of doom. Hope for life is already forcing its way through the clouds in the form of the golden rays of sunlight, entangled in rose and violet mist of cloud. People only need to hold a little longer, and the high raging ocean will be defeated. In the spring of 1850, the picture, the Tenth Wave, was exhibited in Moscow. It proved to be a stunning success. When depicting waves, Ivozovsky, in order to reflect the transparency of the seawater, widely traced them on the canvas first. Afterwards, he worked with fragments on the viscous surface, and then, at last, added glares on water by rich, tasty strokes of paintbrush. Once, wanting to show off his mastery, Ivozovsky painted an incoming wave just on the wall of the room, and the wave scared the visitors. The painter's seascapes are as if they breathe the light, even while depicting awful and indifferent decuman waves. He covers them by warm, sunny light, and in that way introduces a sign of optimism in the tragedy. The Tenth Wave was purchased for hermitage by Russian Tsar Nicholas I. In 1897, when the State Russian Museum was in the process of foundation, the picture was transferred to its collection. They prefer not to handle the picture without special need. Its size, 221 by 332 centimeters, dictates the most stringent requirements for transportation. The display story of this picture in Japan is amazing. First, the famous canvas was exhibited in the newly opened Fuji Art Museum in the late 70s of the 20th century. The wonderful game of light and shadow highly impressed the Tokyo connoisseurs of art. A quarter of a century later, the museum administration conducted a survey among the visitors on the most memorable picture they had seen at the Fuji Art Museum since the day of its inception, and the Japanese unanimously chose Ivozovsky's The Tenth Wave. And in 2004, the painting of the Russian artist was sent to be exhibited in Japan again. After Tokyo, the picture was exhibited in Kobe, which was struck nine years before an awful earthquake, ruining many houses and killing thousands of people. The Japanese associated their tragedy with the one depicted in the picture, deriving hope from the symbolic ray of light seen by people trying to survive on the wreckage of ship. Visitors spent long hours in front of the canvas. Many of them were crying. This was the best tribute to the staff of the Russian Museum for their decision to show The Tenth Wave in Japan. The unsurpassed poet of sea, Ivan Ivozovsky, is a unique phenomenon in the world of art. By lightness, his genius in painting the seas can be compared with the genius of Mozart and music. Sea under his brush becomes incredibly alive, and each time generates a new music, music of waves in the hearts of the spectators. The Ivozovsky's canvas, The Tenth Wave, is, in a way, a parable about the belief that a man has to face more than one decuman wave on the way to his or her targets, but sun will always shine for him through the clouds.