Review 2025

19 Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky. Heavy swell on the high seas, 1898. Oil on canvas, 61 × 93.5 cm. Sold for CHF 1.7 million to a collector in Turkey Eugène Louis Boudin. Le port de Trouville, 1879. Oil on panel, 32.5 × 41 cm. Sold for CHF 135 000 to a collection in Western Switzerland Alexander Koester. Sixteen ducks. Oil on canvas, 80 × 142.5 cm. Sold for CHF 135 000 to England While his early works often convey calm and harmony, Aivazovsky increasingly heightened the dramatic tension of his subjects in later years. The painting of- fered in our September auction vividly illustrates his fascination with the ele- mental force of the sea. He painted the turbulent waters under heavy swell in 1898, just two years before his death. The tightly framed composition, bal- anced structure and restrained palette – almost entirely dominated by shades of blue – lend the painting a strikingly modern character. It is therefore hardly surprising that Aivazovsky’s paintings continue to enjoy great popularity, not only during the artist’s lifetime but also today. An- other major work can now be added to the many important Aivazovskys we were already able to place at excellent prices in the early 2000s. In Septem- ber, a Turkish collector bid just under CHF 1.7 million for ‘Heavy swell on the high seas’.