Self-portrait

1860–1877

Separation from Julia Graves and divorce

After twelve years of marriage his wife leaves Aivazovsky; the marriage is dissolved only in 1877, with the Armenian Church's permission, since Graves was a Lutheran. The cause of the divorce is given as Aivazovsky's systematic physical abuse of his wife.

1874

A commission from Sultan Abdülaziz

In 1874 Aivazovsky makes his third trip to Constantinople. Sultan Abdülaziz, to whom Sarkis Bey Balyan had given one of his paintings, liked it so much that he ordered ten canvases of views of the city and the Bosphorus; while working on the commission the painter was constantly at the palace, befriended the sultan and painted about thirty pictures.

1874–1876

Self-portraits for the Uffizi and the Palazzo Pitti

In 1874 the Florence Academy of Fine Arts asks Aivazovsky for a self-portrait to hang in the Uffizi (a show of his work is held in Florence the same year); in 1876 he is made a member of the academy and becomes the second Russian artist, after Orest Kiprensky, to paint a self-portrait for the Palazzo Pitti.