Farewell 

Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky created this painting, Farewell, with oil on canvas. Although these are conventional materials for painting, it’s worth considering the wider context of their production and distribution. Canvas was usually made from linen, a textile with a long history of cultivation and trade, or from cotton, which was directly tied to colonial economies and enslaved labor. The pigments would have been sourced from all over the world. The deep blue that Aivazovsky renders, for example, might have contained ultramarine, derived from lapis lazuli mined in Afghanistan and then ground into pigment. Knowing this, we can see the painting not just as a seascape, but also as a record of global trade, the circulation of materials, and the intense labor that made such images possible. Aivazovsky's paintings are a testament to the intricate connections between art, commerce, and labor in the 19th century.