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Abandoning Ship – Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky was an Armenian-Russian Romantic painter who is considered one of the greatest masters of marine art. He was born into an Armenian family in the Black Sea port of Feodosia in Crimea and was mostly based there.

While stormy seas, sinking ships and survivors in lifeboats are common themes in Aivazovsky’s work, the absence of horizon and sky in this painting is very unusual. The tightly cropped composition draws the viewer in and increases the drama of the scene, further enhanced by the striking reflection of light on the waves.

The unusual composition is not the result of the canvas having been cut-down at a later stage but was indeed intended by the artist. A copy of the work, painted by Mikhail Briansky in 1887, only five years after the original, was sold at Sotheby’s London in May 2004. Both its composition and dimensions are identical to the original.