The Russian Museum has completed a four-month scientific restoration of Ivan Aivazovsky’s 1850 painting The Ninth Wave. The canvas entered the museum collection in 1897 with its historic gilded frame and has occupied a central place in the permanent exhibition for more than 120 years.
Museum director Alla Manilova said specialists reinforced the ground and paint layer across the canvas, treated areas where the paint was lifting and restored the varnish, which had become uneven and visibly spotted over time. The work was carried out in the Benois Wing’s open restoration room No. 86, where visitors could watch the process.
The frame was restored alongside the painting. Conservators recreated more than 100 missing carved elements, ranging from one to 65 centimeters, cutting replacements from linden wood based on surviving examples. They applied traditional ground and gold leaf to the new pieces.
Manilova described The Ninth Wave as both a landmark of academic Russian painting and a work familiar to a broad public. The restored painting will go on view at a major Aivazovsky exhibition opening in the Benois Wing on October 16. The show will include more than 200 works by the artist and is set to be the Russian Museum’s flagship exhibition of 2026.