Lacquer box paintings by Sergey Knyazev
Lacquer box paintings by Sergey Knyazev. An exquisite portrait of a young girl in traditional Russian attire. Her rich dress and expensive jewels say that she is the daughter of a noble boyar. She isn’t married as her head is covered with the bright red ribbon decorated with large pearls, but not with a kokoshnik that is a typical head-dress of married women in ancient Russia. The girl depicted here embodies the Russian ideal of female beauty. Thick eyebrows and eyelashes, big blue eyes, red fleshy lips and pink cheeks have been always the standards of female beauty in Russia. The author of these brilliant artworks is Sergey Knyazev. The talented artist lives in the old Russian town of Vladimir. He studied design and decoration at the art college of Ivanovo. His favorite style is Russian lacquer art Fedoskino. It combines design, oil painting, fantasy, Sergey paints in oils, paper mache and gold leaf
On the box’s lid there is a moment from the beginning of the tale “Through the Looking Glass And What Alice Found There”. Alice is coming through the mirror to other world. Laquer paintings by Russian artist Sergey Knyazev
The box depicts an impressive view of the white-stoned Rostov Kremlin situated in the ancient Russian town of Rostov (first mentioned in the chronicles in 862). Laquer paintings by Russian artist Sergey Knyazev
Traveling circus. Unbelievable miracles, clowns, acrobats are coming to surprise the audience… Excellent quality and many little details, makes you want to have a closer look at these details, looks fascinating how many layers of different action are happening.
In this composition we can see the effect, as if you are looking at the beautiful Churches sitting on a grass between field flowers. Bell flower (or campanula flower) comparing with the real bells on the towers.
The box shows an episode from the fairy-tale “Ivan Tsarevich and the Grey Wolf”. Here we can see Ivan Tsarevich and Princess Elena sit on a Grey Wolf while he is passing towns and villages.
This originally shaped box is called “Little Mermaid” and shows a mermaid underwater enjoying the games and playing with fishes. The scene is painted in between the elegant corals under the sea.
Here is one of Sergey’s favorite early artwork. Snowmaiden is a heroine of a popular Russian fairy-tale. She leaves Father Frost`s kingdom to see the human world.
These lacquer boxes show a fantastic world of the Russian tales, scenes of everyday life. The three-dimensional effect is achieved with the help mother-of-pearl inlays that shine with a variety of undertones, lustrous gold and silver metal leaf inlays, silver powder, gold paint and a special layer upon layer method of painting.