(1869-1937)

“The topic of his works is one and only – a spacious marine poetry quartet. He does not belong to any school, he does not depend on any fashion or technique.” 
Camille Mokleri

Armenian marine artist Vardan Makhokhyan was born in 1869 in Trabzon. He received his primary education at Sanasaryan College of Karin and afterwards went to Europe. He moved to Berlin to continue his studies in 1891 and became a student of the Academy of Fine Arts.

Initially Makhokhyan painted landscapes. While in Trabzon he was diligently involved in painting and music. He painted scenes of the city and of the sea captured in nature as well as from his own imagination, thus accumulating a solid number of etudes, paintings performed by pen, pencils and watercolors. In 1894 he improved his skills in the studio of Hovhannes (Ivan) Aivazovsky in Crimea, studying his methods of painting the sea. 

Vardan Makhokhyan's works are displayed at the Nice Museum of Fine Arts, the M.K. Ciurlionis Museum in Kaunas, the Museums of the Mekhitarian Congregation in Venice, the National Gallery of Armenia, the Museum of St. Ejmiatsin Patriarchate Residence, the Boyajyan Center for the Arts and in a number of private collections.