Show all images on one page	#001322 Title: Thumbelina Artist: Lapshin Alexey Size: 10.5x8x3 Size (inches): 4x3.25x1.25 Price : $350 SOLD!

This composition, which is unusual for the Palekh style is painted by the young talented artist Alexey Lapshin. It depicts several scenes from the classic fairy-tale "Thumbelina" written by Hans Christian Andersen. Thumbelina was a tiny girl who was born from a flower. During the story she has many adventures, and meets many animals, some of them her friends and some of them not so nice. For a long time she is lonely, but she befriends a swallow who takes her away to a warm country where she meets a fairy prince. The prince takes her as his bride and they live happily ever after. This miniature shows animals that weren't friendly towards Thumbelina. Some of them, including the beetle depicted in the right left corner, the mole, depicted in the bottom left corner, the frog painted in the right bottom corner, wanted to marry the beautiful Thumbelina. But owing to the help of kind animals, the swallow and the butterfly, which is depicted in the upper right corner, Thumbelina became the Princess of Elves, and the bride of a handsome Prince.
The color palette of the composition is also unusual for the style of Palekh painting. The characters and the landscape are painted with gold paints against the black background; gold is the only paint the artist uses here. It creates a beautiful color contrast between gold painting and the black background.
Gold and aluminum beads decorate the edges of the lid, and the same ornamentation can be found on the sides of the box. The sides are also adorned with the beautiful, original gold pattern that consists of different plants tied to each other.
The box is constructed out of paper-mache. Black lacquer is used to paint the exterior and red lacquer to paint the interior of the box. The box has a hinge above the composition and rests on four round feet. It is signed with the artist's name, village and year (2004).