Show all images on one page	#001660 Title: Oh,young gipsy went on the spree...- Gipsy song Artist: Fomichov Lev Size: 17.5x12.5x4 Size (inches): 6.75x5x1.25 Price : $685 SOLD!

The style and skill of master artist Lev Fomichyov is perfectly suited to this elaborate and grand composition. Scenes with many detailed figures, such as this one, is one of the things for which Fomichyov is well known. Learning his trade from the old icon painters, the massed but unique figures are a staple of many of his highly detailed and highly coveted works.
Here the artist has chosen to depict the song entitled, "The Gypsies Were Returning Home From A Fair." These are a few of the lyrics from that tune:

"Gypsies were returning home from a fair,
They decided to rest under a thick apple-tree.
A young Gypsy dressed in a red shirt,
So handsome, so handsome,
Went on a spree.

He lost his way,
He lost his home,
He lost his girl,

And a blue kerchief.
Because of World War II, Lev Fomichyov didn't have a structured education. He wasn't admitted to the Mstera Art School for absence of secondary education. He instead began studying at the Proletarian Art Artel under the old proficient masters of ancient Russian icon painting. From the very beginning of his artistic career Fomichyov was bent on reviving the decorative style of Mstera. This was an urgent task: from the later thirties to the end of the fifties official art had discouraged the employment of any of the traditional details borrowed from icon painting. As a result, the output of Mstera mostly featured saccharine naturalistic pictures, which imitated easel paintings. Fomichyov's own work is proof that striking and individual miniatures can be produced on the basis of those principles of the Mstera School, which were evolved in the early thirties.
Thanks to the view of this young artist, we now have a great legacy in the Mstera art. Fomichyov's works are featured in nearly every lacquer art book, and he was even selected as the representative of the Mstera style for the book Russian Lacquer Miniature by M. Nekrasov and N. Maltseva. He has also left a legacy in his posterity--his daughters have all become excellent painters, and Fomichyov has also helped to mold the skill of their husbands.
One of the things that makes Fomichyov's work so amazing is his ability to create very detailed and diverse scenes using a minimal number of shades of paint. This scene is dominated by olive, mustard, ochre, and orange, with little variance in tone. Each face is highly detailed, and motion is everywhere, constantly drawing the eye to first one portion, than another. Gold paint is used sparingly but purposefully throughout the scene to detail and accentuate.
Gold filigree, immediately recognizable as Fomichyov's, frames the composition on the lid. Another design, based on vines and flowers, decorates the sides of the rectangular box. The lid is hinged from the top of the composition, and the box rests on four rounded feet. This incredible work is signed, dated (2005), and titled ("Eh, a young handsome Gipsy went on a spree