Ivan (Hovhannes) Konstantinovich Aivazovsky was born on July 17 (30), 1817 in Feodosia. The ancestors of Aivazovsky in the XVIII century moved from Western (Turkish) Armenia to southern Poland. At the beginning of the 19th century, the merchant Konstantin (Gevorg) Gaivazovsky moved from Poland to Feodosia. After the plague epidemic that befell Feodosia in 1812, the Gaivazovsky family lived hard. To support a family in which there were two daughters and three sons, the wife of Konstantin Ripsime, a skillful embroiderer, helped. Many of his contemporaries praised the artist's work, and the artist I.N. Kramskoy wrote:... "Aivazovsky, whoever says anything, is a star of the first magnitude, in any case, and not only with us, but in the history of art in general..." Aivazovsky is buried in Feodosia, in the fence of the medieval Armenian church of Surb Sarkis (St. Sarkis). In 1903, the artist's widow installed a marble tombstone in the form of a sarcophagus made of a solid block of white marble, the author of which is the Italian sculptor L. Biogioli. The words of the Armenian historian Movses Khorenatsi are written in ancient Armenian: "Born a mortal, he left an immortal memory in himself"