Show all images on one page	#001668 Title: Along the strait street Artist: Shirokov Anatoliy Size: 24.5x19x4.5 Size (inches): 7.25x9.5x1.75 Price : $895 SOLD!

The famous Mstera artist Anatoly Ivanovich Shirokov created this marvelous painting depicting a romantic scene from peasant life. It's getting dark and the windows of cozy wooden houses sparkle with bright lights. The frost is getting harder and there is a snow-storm that however doesn't frighten the villagers. Some of them amuse themselves like the young men riding a troika depicted in the background, the others are busy with their household chores like the woman pouring water into the bucket depicted in the left bottom corner. In the middle of the composition the artist depicts the lad who flirts with the young beautiful girl carrying a yoke. Over the lad's head the artist writes the following verse: "Wait, my beauty! Wait, don't hurry! Let me feast my eyes upon you, my darling!" May be just these words the lad tells to the girl. The other villagers look at this couple with admiration and think that they soon will be invited to the wedding.
Anatoliy Shirokov's style is one of a kind in the tightly knit circle of Mstera artists. It is so unique and popular that many younger artists are beginning to paint like him, mimicking his lines and making their own interpretations from his style. However, this composition is the artist's creative original that he has never painted before.
The palette for this composition was chosen due to the winter setting in the story. Cool blues, light yellows, whites, and soft grays give off a cold, yet beautiful ambiance. The sky is painted with lustrous gold paint. Gold is also used to decorate the characters' clothes and to create the light in the windows.
Shirokov paints with smooth and soft strokes creating the definite and life-like images of the happy peasants, the beautiful horses, the majestic cathedrals and the surrounded landscape. Every minute detail is very important for the painter.
The composition is outlined with gold paint, and then framed by a detailed floral design elaborated with golden curls and aluminum flowers. This same pattern is enlarged and repeated on the sides of the box. Besides this decoration all four sides of the box are decorated with various miniatures depicted against the gold background showing the cathedral surrounded with multicolored trees; the samovar (a kind of a kettle); the accordion; and the balalaika (musical instrument). The bottom of the box is decorated with the miniature showing two buckets and the magpie. Shirokov titles ("The Snowstorm In The Street"), signs, and lists the materials he used, on the bottom of the box around his personal insignia. He also titles, writes Mstera, and signs his name under the composition on the lid.
The box is constructed out paper-mache that is durable and strong. The exterior is painted with black lacquer and the interior with red. The lid is hinged and the box rests on four rounded feet.
This box was chosen by well-known expert of Russian Lacquer Miniature , Chief of the department of Lacquer Miniature of the All-Russia Museum of Folk and Applied Art Ludmila Pirogova as an illustration to her 2006 Book.