Show all images on one page	#002183 Title: The Trip of Peter the Great to Holland Artist: Molodkin Nickolay Size: 24x17.5x6 Size (inches): 9.5x7x2.5 Price : $950 SOLD!

This work is painted by one of the talented Molodkin brothers, Nikolay Molodkin. He is the youngest in the Molodkin's family. The father of brothers, Vladimir Molodkin, has raised his boys to be great artists.
The work is called "The Trip of Peter the Great to Holland". It reminds the viewer an interesting episode from the life of Peter the Great. In 1698 Tsar Peter arrived in Holland where he took lodgings at a local blacksmith's house and began working incognito at a shipyard. His dream was to build his own fleet and to open the Southern seas to Russia. In the beginning of Peter's reign, Russia had access only to the Arctic seas and had no fleet whatsoever. Peter decided to go to Holland to study both navigation and marine engineering from the Dutch who were at that time considered the best specialists in these fields.
The romantic story of Peter's stay in Amsterdam is common knowledge. Every Russian schoolchild knows that Tsar Peter and his friend Menshikov began as carpenters. They were dressed as common sailors and worked together as sail-makers, mast builders, and seamen.
Peter became a great admirer of Holland. While living in this country, he learnt much about Western culture. Returning to Russia he brought many habits and ideas of Western Europe and adopted many of them in Russia. So, Peter is not only the founder of Russian fleet, he also brought to Russia such western habits as drinking coffee, skating, shaving, etc. He was that Tsar who could as the Russians say: "Open the Window to Europe".
The blue waters of the sea and light brown tones of the landscape interact and contrast each other nicely. Gold paint is used to paint the sky in the right upper corner, and detail special elements for emphasis and additional splendor.
The scene is framed with a gold line. Intricate gold foliage ornamentation decorate the edges of the lid, and wrap around the box's sides.
The box is constructed from paper-mache. Black lacquer is used to paint the exterior of the work while red lacquer completes the interior of the box. The lid is hinged from the top of the composition. The box rests upon four legs. The work is signed, titled and dated (2006) by the artist in gold paints at the bottom of the composition.