Top 15 Russian paintings of Crimea

The Crimean peninsula, also known as Taurida (from the name of the ancient Tauric tribes first mentioned in texts by Ancient Greek historians), became part of the Russian Empire in 1783, under Empress Catherine II, following the victory in the Russian-Turkish war. Since then it developed a reputation of the Russian Riviera: with a climate which was much better than that of the capital, St Petersburg; with natural beauty, picturesque bays and mountains which were not too high and were therefore suitable for walking. / In Crimea. After a rainfall, Fyodor Vasilyev, 1873.

All that attracted the Russian aristocracy (who were building luxurious villas there) and inspired writers (from Pushkin to Chekhov to Voloshin) and artists. / Street in Yalta, Isaac Levitan, 1886.

Needless to say that for those artist who were primarily interested in landscape painting, Crimea was a must. For example, Ivan Shishkin spent a lot of time sketching in Simferopol, Alushta, Yalta, Alupka. / In Crimea, Ivan Shishkin, 1879.

Crimea was also a favorite destination for Vasily Vereshchagin, Vasily Surikov, and Vladimir Makovsky. / Cape Fiolent near Sevastopol, Vasily Vereshchagin, 1897.

When you think of the sea, the artist who first comes to mind is Ivan Aivazovsky. He was born in Feodosia and this is where he returned to after graduating from the Academy of Arts and travelling in Europe. Having lived practically all his life by the sea, the famous seascape artist never painted it from life: raging waves, boats smashed against rocks, and glorious sunsets giving a golden glow to the sea – he painted all of that in his studio from memory. / Ayu-Dag, Ivan Aivazovsky, 1853.

One of his first students was another native of Feodosia, Lev Lagorio. He had his studio in Sudak, from where he travelled around the peninsula for sketching. In the 1880-90s, Lagorio created a series of paintings depicting Crimean towns and the coast: views of ships in a roadstead, mountains and bays at sunrise were a success among his aristocratic clients, who were building houses on the coast. / Crimean landscape, Lev Lagorio, 1891.

An impressionist vision of Crimea, with the sun, the sea and flowers leaping from the canvas, was created by Konstantin Korovin. Chekhov, who was in love with the Crimean coast, offered to sell his Gurzuf house to Korovin, however, instead the artist designed and built in 1910 a summer house and a studio, calling it Salammbo, after the heroine of the Flaubert novel. Korovin could see Chekhov's house from his window and often depicted it in his paintings. The works he created in Gurzuf are commonly considered to be some of the artist's best. / Pier in Gurzuf, Konstantin Korovin, 1914.

For artists, Crimea became one of the most favorite en-plein-air locations in the summer. / In Crimea, Vasiliy Surikov, 1913.

The same way as Renoir and Cezanne depicted the lush scenery of the south of France, Monet opened his contemporaries' eyes to the northern beauty of Normandy, and Gauguin painted Brittany, several generations of Russian artists traveled to the Crimean coast for inspiration. / Seashore near Sudak, Volodymyr Orlovsky, 1889.

Another famous "champion" of Crimea was Arkhip Kuindzhi, whose landscapes are instantly recognizable thanks to his masterly depiction of light. According to one anecdote, young Kuindzhi came from his native Mariupol to Feodosia to ask the already famous Aivazovsky to teach him, however the renowned artist sent his junior colleague to paint fences instead. Some 30 years later, having graduated from the Academy of Arts and received acclaim at an exhibition in Paris, Kuindzhi returned to Crimea and bought a plot of land in the settlement of Kikineiz (now Opolznevoye) outside Yalta. / Sea. Crimea, Arkhip Kuindzhi, 1875.

Throughout the 19th century, the Romanovs together with other aristocratic families built numerous dachas all over Crimea. A hero of the 1812 war, Prince Mikhail Vorontsov, was one of the first in the 1830-40s to build a palace in Alupka, at the bottom of the mountain Ai-Petri (it now houses one of Crimea's most interesting museums). / Crimean seashore, Vladimir Makovsky, 1889.

To the south from there, in Livadia, Emperor Alexander II ordered an imperial summer residence to be built. Not far from it, in Massandra, a palace for Alexander III was built at the turn of the century. The number of people holidaying in Crimea increased dramatically after the first railway was built on the peninsula in the 1870s. / Embankment in Yalta, Grigoriy Myasoyedov, 1890.

The famous illustrator, Ivan Bilibin, spent the turbulent years of the revolution here. / Crimea, Koktebel, Ivan Bilibin, 1939.

Crimea was popular with avant-garde artists too, although on a smaller scale. Ilya Mashkov painted his Cezanne-inspired bathing women here... / Sunbathing in Crimea, Ilya Mashkov, 1920.

... while Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin happened to be in Crimea during the 1927 earthquake, which had an impact on his later works. / Earthquake in Crimea, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, 1928.