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Home > Gallery > Palekh > Over $500

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#001761

Title: The Night before Cristmas
Artist: Sergey Molkov
Size: 12.5x10x9.5
Size (inches): 5x4x3.75
Price : $1250 SOLD!

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Description:

This splendid piece of Russian artistry was painted by the talented Palekh artist S.A. Molkov. It shows several scenes from the N.V. Gogol's literary work "The night before Christmas". This work was included into the famous book of collected stories called "The Evenings in the Village situated not far from Dikanka" written by the same writer. This book was created in the beginning of the nineteenth century and at once became the best seller. It was composed of mystical fairy-tales and horror stories written in the folk style. Creating this literary work Gogol discovered a new style in Russian literature. Telling his horror stories, he described folk traditions and customs of the Ukrainians and praised the beauty of Ukrainian nature that was his motherland.
"The night before Christmas" is a Christmas fairy-tale. It tells about the adventures of the smith whose name is Vikula on the eve of Christmas. Vikula loves the most beautiful girl in the village and does his best to gain her affection. The girl also loves Vikula, but being very proud and coquettish she decides to torment her suitor before saying "yes". She promises to marry Vikula if he presents her the shoes that queens wear. The smith becomes very upset, as he understands that it is incredible to fulfill this task. He goes to the outskirts of the village, and suddenly meets the devil. He catches the devil and orders this creature to carry him to St. Petersburg, as he wants to ask the Queen, Catherine the Great, to present him her shoes. The devil carries out this order and helps Vikula to penetrate in the Queen's palace. The smith dares to tell the Queen about his unlucky love and also about the strange request of his darling. Catherine the Great touched by his story presents him her shoes. Vikula with the devil's help returns to his native village and goes to his darling. When he finds her and shows the queen's shoes, she hugs him says that she doesn't need these shoes and that she loves him very much. So, this tale ends happily.
The composition painted on the box's lid shows the open-air merrymaking of Ukrainian young girls and lads on the eve of Christmas, and also Vikula flying to St. Petersburg riding the devil. One of four box's sides shows the humorous episode from this story. Vikula's mother who has many lovers has to hide her suitors in different parts of her house as they come to visit her one after another. Another side shows Vikula catching the devil, the Ukrainian lad who eats "galushki" (national Ukrainian food), and several girls. The third side shows Catherine the Great presenting Vikula her shoes, and the fourth one depicts the father of the girl whom Vikula loves giving his blessing to his daughter and Vikula.
The box is painted in the traditional Palekh style. Bright, vivid colors burn against the black background. Lustrous gold metal paints are used to paint the stars, the moon, light in the windows, and also to detail the characters' costumes, the snow, and a lot of other details.
The edges of the lid and the edges of the box's base are decorated with beautiful gold patterns. The box is constructed out of high-grade paper-mache. Black lacquer is used to paint the exterior and red lacquer is used to paint the interior of the box. The lid isn't hinged and the box rests on four legs. Molkov wrote Palekh, the year of 1987 and his name at the bottom of the lid's composition in gold paint.




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