Wartan Mahokian (1869-1937): "view Of Lake Van And Ararat" Oil On Canvas Mounted On Cardboard

Wartan Mahokian (1869-1937), Armenian: "View of Lake Van, with Mount Ararat in the background." Oil on canvas mounted on cardboard, monogrammed lower right. Dimensions: 37 x 27 cm. Provenance: artist's studio. Sold with certificate. Wartan Mahokian, emblematically known as the painter of the sea, was born in 1869 in Trebizond. He left his hometown in 1891 to study at the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts. In 1894, in Feodosia, he had an encounter that would change the course of his life: that of Aivazovsky, a great painter of the sea, who would later become his spiritual and artistic mentor. Wartan's genius revealed, he fled the pogroms of Trebizond in 1895 and for thirteen years traveled the various seas bordering Europe. The aim of all these journeys was to fulfill a dream: to see and depict all the seas, however different they might be. From Italy to Denmark, by way of France, he immortalized a large part of the European continent with his brush. Besides his seascapes, he also painted landscapes of both wild and man-made nature. However, he remained faithful to the seaside, to which he owed his success and renown. In 1908, he returned to his native city of Trebizond, which he fled again in 1915 because of the genocide. "Louis Vauxelles, usually sparing with praise, devoted several articles to presenting and supporting the work of Wartan Mahokian." He settled in Nice, where he continued his work in the calm waters of the Mediterranean. A life fraught with obstacles and upheavals undoubtedly allowed him to connect his painting to the feelings he expressed. Between peace, nature, strength, and anger, Mahokian captured the present moment, intertwined with his passions and the traumas of his childhood. A long series of exhibitions then began, primarily in France: in 1923, he exhibited at the Lambert Gallery in Marseille, and in 1925 at the Allard Gallery in Paris. But he became increasingly integrated into his adopted region, and Nice in particular, where numerous exhibitions were dedicated to him until his death on February 11, 1937. He is buried in Nice at the Caucade Cemetery, recognized by his contemporaries who awarded him the Legion of Honor. “There reigns an impression of extraordinary solitude in his canvases made with water and wind, as harsh as visions of the desert,” Camille Mauclair, art critic.