Show all images on one page	#001007 Title: Andrey the Rifleman Artist: Molodkin Daniil Size: 9x5.5x3.5 Price : $375 SOLD!

This marvelous composition was painted by young talented artist from Mstera Daniil Molodkin. The artist has a fertile imagination; he can see unusual qualities of the common things. His works are always notable for fantastic representation of different subjects and bright multicolored coloring.
This composition depicts a scene from the Russian fairy-tale "Go to the place which location is unknown, and bring something that nobody has never seen". This fairy-tale has two variations. The main character of the first version is Fedot the Rifleman and the main character of the second one is Andrey the Rifleman. These similar in subject fairy-tales differ from each other in some insignificant details. This is the second version of the tale where the main character is Andrey the Rifleman.
In this fairy-tale it is said about the old cruel tsar who falls in love with the young beautiful wife of the court rifleman Fedot. Fedot's wife loves her husband and rejects the tsar's proposal of marriage. The persistent tsar decides to get rid of the rifleman and marry his wife. To realize his plan, the tsar forces his adviser to contrive ways of killing Fedot. The tsar adviser meets a barfly in a tavern, who helps him to contrive these ways. At first the tsar orders Andrey to go to the next world and find out how the deceased tsar's father is getting on. Afterwards the tsar orders to catch him Cat the Lullaby Singer, and at last he orders to fulfill the unrealizable task: "go to the place which location is unknown, and bring something that nobody has never seen". The end of this fairy-tale is happy. Andrey manages to perform all these tasks, to punish the tsar and became the ruler of the kingdom.
In the composition the artist depicts how Andrey the Rifleman catches Cat the Lullaby Singer, fulfilling the second task. He grasps the cat with the iron pincers and then begins to beat it with the iron switch. The cat can't bear this torture and surrenders to Andrey.
The composition is bright and colorful. It seems that the artist used here all shades of the rainbow. Bright green, blue, yellow, brown, red colors create a festive mood.
The depicted scene transports the viewer into the world of fantasy and fairy-tale. It reminds an illustration to a science fiction story. Whimsical plants and mountains, multicolored stars in the pinky-blue sky, the depiction of the fantastic moon, unusual coloring based on different tonal contrasts, the extraordinary three-leveled hat of the rifleman that resembles a fantastic flower act together to excite fantasy of the viewer and lead him into the fairy-tale world.
A gold simple line frames the composition. A gold foliage pattern decorates the edges of the lid, and this same pattern (only enlarged and accentuated with aluminum) decorates the sides of the box. The lid is hinged from the top of the composition, and the box sits on four carved legs. The corners of the legs are also adorned with aluminum foliage pattern.
Black lacquer covers the exterior of the box, while red lacquer covers the interior of the box. The base of the box includes the brand of the Mstera factory stamped in gold and the title of the fairy-tale also written in gold. The box is signed with the name of the artist and village.