BY ALBERT CHEN

A tranquil Mediterranean shore produced a powerful saleroom result when Ivan Aivazovsky’s View of Capri sold for €825,900 at Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr in Paris earlier this year. The luminous coastal painting led the house’s Old Master and 19th Century Paintings auction, comfortably outstripping its €250,000–€350,000 estimate. The reported sale price includes buyer’s premium; auction estimates exclude that charge.

Painted in 1899, a year before Aivazovsky’s death, the work exchanges the drama of a storm for the stillness of an Italian day. A boat rests on clear blue water, small figures gather at the shoreline, and distant land dissolves into a pale horizon. Much of the canvas belongs to the sky. Its spaciousness makes the human presence feel fleeting, while the light gives a seemingly uneventful scene its extraordinary sense of life.

A Quiet Sea, a Powerful Result

Aivazovsky’s reputation rests on an ability to make water, weather and atmosphere the real subjects of a painting. Here, the effect comes through delicate changes of colour rather than crashing waves: cooler blues open into softer, pearly tones, and the sea carries the eye towards a distant, sunlit coastline. Measuring 65 by 97.8 centimetres, the oil on canvas is signed in Latin and dated at the lower left, with a further signature on the reverse.

Bonhams records that the painting was acquired at Christie’s London in 1989 and subsequently passed down through the family. It is accompanied by an expertise from Gianni Caffiero and included in the numbered archive compiled by Caffiero and Ivan Samarine. Against that documented background, the Paris result gives a vivid example of the sums collectors will commit to a major marine painter: a quiet view of Capri became the financial centrepiece of the sale.

Source: Bonhams.

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