Show all images on one page	#002560 Title: Along the street... Artist: Shirokov Anatoliy Size: 24.5x18x5 Size (inches): 9.5x7x2 Price : $950 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, but it doesn't frighten the villagers. Some of them amuse themselves like the young men riding the troika; while 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. Some villagers look at this couple with admiration and suppose 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.
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 tiny gold beads, and then framed by a detailed gold leafy design accompanied by grey beads. Each corner of the lid is adorned by original patterns painted in blue, grey oils and gold paints. The same ornamentation is repeated on the sides of the box including both the gold leafy designs and patterns on the corners. Each side also features a small additional scene; these scenes painted in oils and gold paints continue the winter theme drawn on the lid and show picturesque winter landscapes.
Shirokov titles ("There is a 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. The exterior is painted with black lacquer and the interior with red. The lid is hinged at the top, and the box rests on four feet.
Similar scene 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.