Ivan Aivazovsky, famous for painting huge ocean scenes like "The Ninth Wave," turned 70 in 1887 and did something unexpected. He painted tiny seascapes, each only about 4 by 3 inches.
He didn't put these little pictures on walls. Instead, he had them pasted into studio photos of himself and mailed the photos to more than 150 friends as birthday gifts.
By mixing tiny paintings with photographs, he was quietly trying something new—years before photo-painting combos became common in the 1900s. Even at that size, the paintings still show the same careful detail as his big canvases and prove he liked to experiment no matter the scale.
See also: Taste Test: Sea beans
