100 years of Palekh fairy tale

In 1924 in the village. Palekh was organized by the “Palekh Artel of Ancient Painting” by seven former icon painters: I. Golikov, I. Bakanov, A. and I. Zubkov, A. and V. Kotukhin, I. Markichev. Soon they were joined by D. Butorin, A. Vatagin and others. The masters continued the ancient icon-painting tradition that had developed back in the 18th century. and absorbed the achievements of the Stroganov and Moscow school of “royal icon painters”, Yaroslavl and Kostroma letters of the 17th century. However, Palekh artists were known much earlier.

Palekh became the center of icon painting back in the 17th century. Artists were often invited to paint and restore churches and temples, for example, the Faceted Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin, the churches of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, the Novodevichy Convent and many other shrines. After the October Revolution, many hereditary masters had to abandon icon painting. But they were able to preserve the ancient Russian artistic tradition.

Artists mastered painting on the new material papier-mâché, from which boxes, powder compacts, and jewelry were made. In their works they preserved the style of the ancient Russian icon - slender proportions of figures, a conventional depiction of a landscape with hills-platforms, “grasses”, “chambers”, decorativeness and ornamentation, whimsically combining really existing nature with fantastic vegetation, birds, animals.

Palekh artists successfully worked in the field of theatrical and decorative art, book graphics, monumental painting, painting of porcelain, restoration of monumental painting.

The collection of the Kaluga Museum of Fine Arts contains beautiful works by Palekh artists, acquired in 1938 - 1970s. G. M. Melnikova, V. D. Solonina, A. A. Blokhina, A. V. Kotukhina, Z. M. Akbashev, L. Mikhailova, A. M. Kurkin, united by one idea - displaying folklore and fairy tale motifs in decorative art of Russian lacquer miniatures.