Future world-renowned outstanding marine painter Ivan Aivazovsky (Hovhannes Aivazian) (1817-1900) was born into an Armenian family in the Black Sea port of Feodosia in Crimea and was mostly based there. But Aivazovsky’s work was not limited to marine life and he also painted historical, contemporary, biblical, and other subjects. The open steppe space appealed to Aivazovsky’s imagination, where the waves of feather grass and wheat driven by the wind resembled the sea waves. The steppe is very similar to the sea in the perception of space, and the steppe theme became a significant layer of his work.
Before Aivazovsky, the southern steppe had never been the main subject of the paintings, so Aivazovsky can be viewed as the first painter to relay in his works the images of the boundless expanse of the southern Ukrainian steppes. The theme of the steppes became closely connected with the theme of the Chumaks, people who delivered heavy loads to great distances using ox-driven wagons. At times, the Chumaks moved in caravans and Aivazovsky could see those on the way to and from his hometown in Crimea. The first painting of the Chumaks by Aivazovsky is dated circa 1857 and can be seen in the title image of this article. Then several more appeared shortly afterward:
Chumaks Salt Caravan, 1862
Ukrainian Landscape with Chumaks, 1864:
