Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky was born on 19 July 1817, into an Armenian family in the Black Sea port of Feodosia in Crimea and was mostly based there. Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky studied in Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg. During his 60-year career, Aivazovsky produced around 6,000 paintings. And the vast majority of Aivazovsky's works depict the sea. He rarely drew dry-landscapes and created only a handful of portraits. The Ninth Wave (1850) is considered Aivazovsky's most famous work. Everyone can see his drawings at the Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg. Aivazovsky's later work contained dramatic scenes and was usually done on a larger scale. Aivazovsky died on 19 April 1900 in Feodosia. In accordance with his wishes, he was buried at the courtyard of St. Sargis Armenian Church. A quote from Movses Khorenatsi's History of Armenia in Classical Armenian is engraved on his tombstone: "Born as a mortal, left the immortal memory of himself".
AN UNUSUAL GALLERY 1 It was a beautiful afternoon in the woods near the village of Montignac. The sky was blue and autumn leaves covered the ground. Four friends strolled happily among the tall trees, telling stories about treasures that people had hidden in the forest. 2 As they were walking, one of the boys fell over. When the others ran to help him, they saw that there was a hole in the ground. Could this be a tunnel with hidden treasures in it? The boys started to dig. trying to make the hole bigger so that they could climb in and have a look. By this time though, it was getting dark and they didn't have a torch, so they decided to come back early the next day. 3 They returned to the woods before school. One by one, the boys lit their torches and crawled into the small dark tunnel. After about ten minutes, the boy who was at the front let out a loud gasp. When he pointed his torch at the wall, everyone was amazed to see the walls covered with colourful pictures of horses, deer and oxen. The friends ran quickly to school and told their teacher all about their fantastic discovery. She called an expert who went immediately to examine the paintings. 4 Later that day, their teacher asked the boys to stay behind after school. They thought that they had done something wrong, but they were relieved when they saw their teacher's smiling face. The expert had confirmed that the boys were the first modern people to lay eyes upon the famous Lascaux paintings, which were at least 17,000 years old. They felt really proud.
1 It was a beautiful afternoon in the woods near the village of Montignac. The sky was blue and autumn leaves covered the ground. Four friends strolled happily among the tall trees, telling stories about treasures that people had hidden in the forest.
2 As they were walking, one of the boys fell over. When the others ran to help him, they saw that there was a hole in the ground. Could this be a tunnel with hidden treasures in it? The boys started to dig. trying to make the hole bigger so that they could climb in and have a look. By this time though, it was getting dark and they didn't have a torch, so they decided to come back early the next day.
3 They returned to the woods before school. One by one, the boys lit their torches and crawled into the small dark tunnel. After about ten minutes, the boy who was at the front let out a loud gasp. When he pointed his torch at the wall, everyone was amazed to see the walls covered with colourful pictures of horses, deer and oxen. The friends ran quickly to school and told their teacher all about their fantastic discovery. She called an expert who went immediately to examine the paintings.
4 Later that day, their teacher asked the boys to stay behind after school. They thought that they had done something wrong, but they were relieved when they saw their teacher's smiling face. The expert had confirmed that the boys were the first modern people to lay eyes upon the famous Lascaux paintings, which were at least 17,000 years old. They felt really proud.