Ayvazovsky tops ranking of favorite artists in Russia

Hovhannes Ayvazovsky tops the ranking of favorite artists in Russia, recent polls reveal.

In a telephone voting conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center, the overwhelming majority of the respondents voted in favor of the world-famous Russian-Armenian sea painter. Some 93% said they know the artist's surname, while another 64% said they like his painting art.

The other artists in the survey – Ivan Shishkin and Ilya Repin – received respectively 26% and 16% of votes, Life.ru reports.

The polls were conducted between July 16 and 17, attracting the country's adult population.

An exhibition held in Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery last year in celebration of Ayvazovsky's 200th birth anniversary was listed among the world's most visited exhibitions of 2016.