'Highest Wave', 1850, (1939). Also known as 'The Ninth Wave', seascape showing shipwrecked souls clinging to a piece of debris in the shape of a crucifix. Ivan Aivazovsky (1817-1900) lived in Italy in the 1840s, and was later appointed the main painter of the Russian Navy. He produced a vast quantity of work, and was also popular outside Russia, mounting solo exhibitions in Europe and the United States. Painting in the collection of The State Russian Museum, St Petersburg, Russia. From "The Russian State Museum". [State Art Publishers, Moscow and Leningrad, 1939]