Tallinn Trip – Kadriorg Art Museum (View of Mount Vesuvius Before Eruption by Ivan Aivazovksy)

Definitely nearly there with these artwork posts…..

I puzzled over the concept of this artwork, there are beautiful hues of the sky, a finely painted seascape, a rather nice statue and then a bloody great volcano erupting. Maybe it’s a profound statement about finding inner peace amidst the chaos of existence, or maybe Aivazovsky (1817-1900) just had a surplus of grey paint. But, I wouldn’t want to put an artwork up on my wall which foretold a great disaster where thousands of people died.

The artist, Ivan Aivazovksy, is something of an icon in Russia to this day, he painted numerous battle scenes as well as seascapes. Perhaps he just likes a bit of disaster, who knows. He’s become rather controversial recently, some people and institutions (including the Metropolitan Museum of Art) called him a Ukrainian painter and some cities in the country have removed street names he was honoured with. And the Russian army have stolen some of his artworks from Ukrainian institutions. Controversy continues on the matter as can be seen at https://artlyst.com/art_market_news/looted-ukrainian-painting-sells-1-million-russian-auction-house/.