New life of an old craft

Visitors to the Grand Canyon almost always have the same reactions: “It’s SO beautiful! It’s so vast! It’s just breathtaking! What a view!” With Russian lacquer miniatures, the reaction is much the same, but only in reverse, “They’re SO beautiful! They’re so very, very tiny! There must be stories in these scenes. It’s like peering into a magic place, pure magic!”

The San Francisco-based company RussFolk Art was established in 1987. RussFolk Art is well-known for the large collection of unique and original lacquer miniature works that are impossible to find elsewhere. The company works in direct contact with Palekh, Mstera, Kholui, and Fedoskino artists, allowing its clients to receive very affordable prices on all merchandise.

Russian miniature painting on lacquered papier-mache is unique in the History of world culture. The four Russian villages of Fedoskino, Palekh, Mstera, and Kholui are known to connoisseurs the world over for their lacquer miniatures.

The technique of lacquer painting originated in Japan, China, and Persia in antiquity. Lacquer is a natural substance obtained from the lacquer or varnish tree which is indigenous to China. This is why China leads the world in lacquer resources. Lacquer trees take 3 to 5 years to mature to the point where they can be tapped for their sap. The trees can only be tapped in the predawn hours before sunrise in the months of June and July because sun reduces the moisture in the air causing the flow of sap to stop. Raw lacquer, the sap of the tree, hardens after contact with the air.

Oriental lacquer work came to Europe in the 16th century. Unlike Oriental lacquerware, the miniature boxes in Europe and Russia were made from sheets of cardboard pressed and glued together and then dried in hot air to become as hard as wood. They were not affected by climatic changes. The Europeans’ keen interest in lacquerware and the unheard-of prices it fetched encouraged the development of the craft. By the 18th century, lacquer snuff boxes decorated with miniatures made in England, France, and Germany became fashionable. One of the greatest European centers for such items was Johann Stobwasser’s factory in Braunschweig, Germany.

In 1795, Russian merchant Pyotr Korbov visited the Braunschweig works and his enterprising mind quickly grasped that cheap articles could be mass produced using this very durable combination of materials. Within a year he had opened his own factory on the outskirts of Fedoskino. At first he employed just over twenty people. The Fedoskino painting factory is the recognized birthplace of Russian lacquer miniature painting. Today, Fedoskino is the only lacquerware factory in Europe dating back to the 18th century. Based on classic 17th century European oil painting, the Fedoskino technique is amazing in its perfection.

The pictures were produced by the application of several layers of oil paints. One after another, up to four layers were added and worked over: ground tinting, outlines, successive translucent layers and, finally, highlights. Each layer was dried and sealed with lacquer. In certain places mother of pearl was embedded in the surface of the object, layers of gold leaf were glued to it and powdered silver dusted on. The richness of texture was attained by an alternation between thickly painted colors covered with a translucent top layer, and “through-painted” areas where one color shone through another. It was this technique that gave the Fedoskino pictures their distinctive succession of brilliant and subdued, matte and shining, translucent and opaquely dense sections of the painted surface.

The themes and subjects depicted varied and together made up an entire encyclopedia of rural life. Favorite subjects were a troika ride, folk dances, finely dressed young women, hunting scenes, and views of Saint Petersburg and Moscow. Legends and fairy tales were also frequently portrayed. Landscape evolved as an independent theme in the Fedoskino miniatures. The unity of man and nature was a fundamental theme in the art of lacquer miniatures. The artists often painted fairy tale images of peasant life that were far from the realities of everyday existence. The first known Russian lacquer piece is the “Chinese Cabinet” in Peter the Great’s small palace of Monplaisir in Peterhoff.

The “golden age” of Russian lacquers began after 1819, when the factory passed into other hands. Korobov was succeeded by his son-in-law, Pyotr Lukutin and later by his own son, Alexander.

The originality of the scenes depicted and the high quality of these articles made the Fedoskino masters so famous that in 1828 Lukutin was given the right to insert the Russian coat of arms and his own signature on the boxes. By this time there were already about 100 employees at the factory.

By the mid-19th century about one thousand artisans were engaged in producing lacquer miniatures. However, toward the end of the century the artistic quality of the lacquers declined noticeably. In 1904 the Lukutin works closed following the death of its last owner. Six years later the “Fedoskino Guild of Former Masters of the Lukutin Works” was formed. The old artists preserved the glory of their craft and passed it on to the young. Two distinctive categories of Russian artists developed. One group includes leading artists who create original compositions, and the other is comprised of craftsmen who copy their work or the paintings of old world masters.

Today, life goes on in the village of Fedoskino much like it has for hundreds of years. In 1995, Fedoskino celebrated the 200th year of producing Russian lacquer miniatures.

The Palekh School of lacquer miniatures appeared in the 1920s and was followed in the 1930s by those of Mstera and Kholui. The work at Fedoskino served as an example to them and provided a model in the preparation of lacquer items on papier-mache.

These three related schools shared one fundamental stylistic trait that distinguished them from Fedoskino. This art was the work of hereditary professional icon painters who found themselves unemployed as a result of the persecution of the church and of Christians after the 1917 Revolution. They represented a direct and creative continuation of the traditional artistic techniques used in Russian medieval icon painting.

Palekh artists had to master the art of making papier-mache and lacquer boxes and (most important of all) learn how to prepare and polish the lacquer, since the Fedoskino masters did not share many of their secrets with others. While the basic technologies in the treatment of papier-mache were the same, the painting in Palekh was quite distinctive. Palekh, Mstera, and Kholui artists used an egg-based tempera rather than oil paint as was employed by the Fedoskino masters. Depending on the effect they wished to achieve, the Palekh masters applied their paint in thick or almost translucent layers, thereby creating an exceptionally rich variety of tonal effects.

The artists of Mstera began their work by focusing on landscapes. They grew, like Palekh, from the icon-painting tradition. As in Palekh, scenes of peaceful labor, hunting scenes and festive celebrations served as the basis for the revival of the art of miniature painting.

Kholui, the youngest of the centers of lacquer tempera miniatures, was first closely connected with Mstera and then with Palekh. Soon the Kholui masters, themselves also hereditary icon painters, parted ways with the strict artistic system of Mstera and Palekh centers.

An epically generalized image was combined with a picturesque interpretation of form and a fantasy in its decorative compositions. The principles laid down in the 1930s by the great masters formed the basis of this tradition.

Beginning in the 1940s the art of the lacquer miniature experienced several decades of severe crisis. The Soviet totalitarian regime, which left its mark on every sphere of culture, began to attack not only the icon-painting tradition, but also the use of metaphor and symbol as a whole. Socialist Realism demanded propaganda work and a realistic form of depiction that undermined the traditions of the miniature and denied its specific, artistic, decorative, and thematic originality. The language of allegory was abandoned and the new lacquers were crude imitations of posters or photographs.

The renaissance in the art of lacquer miniatures began in the 1970s, and today interesting and creative works are being produced. Leading artists have employed the traditions, skills, and experience of the past and applied them to the contemporary miniature. Experimenting with the creative use of a wide range of new materials has allowed them to embody their artistic ideas in meaningful and symbolic images.

Eugenia Zelkin, the proud owner of RussFolk Art, is a VIP participant of folk art trade shows. She is regularly presenting trade shows in Dallas, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, Hawaii, Las Vegas, and Chicago. In addition to marketing lacquer boxes, the company also has a wide collection of Russian dolls, amber, Rostov enamels, and Faberge-style eggs.

Contact information:

12 Nursery Way

South San Francisco, CA 94080

Phone: (650) 583-7774

Fax: (650) 583-7947

contact@russfolkart.com

www.russfolkart.com