Ivan Aivazovsky. The Sea, 1887

This 1887 seascape by Ivan Aivazovsky is an unexpected object in a museum devoted to the history of 20th-century Russia. The picture is painted in oil on canvas; the catalogue gives Russia as its place of creation.

Aivazovsky (1817–1900) was born and died in Feodosia and was above all a marine painter. Over his long life he painted more than six thousand pictures. He did not work from nature: he reconstructed what he had seen from memory, relying on schematic sketches.

Aivazovsky's name is listed among the artists on the painting collection page of the Museum of Contemporary History of Russia.