Product Description
Bilibin, I. Sketches for the Rimsky-Korsakoff opera "Golden Cockerel". Exquisitely detailed and textured miniature matryoshka from Russia that was painted in 1993 (two years after the fall of the USSR). Each piece is painted with a figure on either side and titled in a scroll in Russian. The characters start with the tsar and tsaritsa, and which are followed by the boyars (doll 2), the astrologer and the slave (doll 3), the guard and the goat (doll 4), and finally, a young man and a maiden (юнуша и девица). 5 pieces, 4⅛" down to 1½". Outside of a thin small stress crack on the first piece (barely visible - extends up the tallest turret with the red flag), the piece is fine. 1 only.
Ivan Bilibin (1876-1942) was a Russian artist, illustrator and stage designer who took part in the Mir Iskusstva movement and contributed to the Ballets Russes. He was inspired by Slavic folklore and is celebrated for his art Nouveau series of illustrations for Russian fairy tale books.