Show all images on one page	#008743 Sale! Title: Tale of a Silver hoof Artist: Kuzmenko Galina Size: 9x12x3 Size (inches): 3.5x4.75x1.25 Price: $225 $175

Talented Palekh artist Kuzmenko Galina has painted this detailed compositon.It shows a scene from the Russian fairy-tale "Silver Hoof".
Here is the plot of the story:
An old man Kokovanya has no family and decides to take an orphan into his house. He finds out that Daryonka (little "A gift"), a 6-year-old girl, has recently lost her family and invites her to live with him. She accepts, and when she asks about his profession, he reveals that he works as a gold prospector in summer, and in winter he's hunting the certain goat in the forests, because he wants "to see where he stamps his right forefoot". Kokovanya, Daryonka and her cat named Muryonka start living together. Kokovanya works to earn their living, the girl cleans the house and cooks. Winter comes, and Kokovanya decides to go hunting in the forest as usual. He tells Daryonka about the grey goat called Silver Hoof:
That's a very special goat. On his right forefoot he's got a silver hoof. And when he stamps with that silver hoof he leaves a gem there. If he stamps once there's one gem, if he stamps twice there are two, and if he begins to paw the ground there'll be a whole pile. Ordinary goats have two horns, but this one's got antlers, with five tines.
Unlike other goats' horns, Silver Hoof's horns are not shed in winter, and that is how Kokovanya is planning to recognize him. Daryonka begs the old man to take her hunting, and he reluctantly agrees. The cat follows them too. In the forest, Kokovanya goes hunting every day and comes back with a lot of regular goat meat and skins. Soon they have so much meat that Kokovanya has to go back to the village to bring the horse, so that they could carry everything back. He leaves the girl in the forest for a while.
Next morning Daryonka sees Silver Hoof passing by. That night, she sees her cat Muryonka sitting in the glade with the goat in front of her, as if they are communicating. They run about the glade for a long time. Next day Muryonka and the goat are gone, but Kokovanya and Daryonka find a lot of gemstones. "After that people often found stones in the glade where the goat had run about. Most of them were green ones, chrysolites, folks call them". Green,yellow and red tones of tempera paints help the artist to express coldness of a winter day. A sparkle of the snow is achieved with the help of aluminum paint.
The scene is framed with a nice golden dots ornament while the box's sides are adorned with a feligree gold and silver scrolling design.
The box is made out of paper-mache. Black lacquer covers the exterior and red lacquer covers the interior of the box. The lid is hinged to the left of the composition, and the box rests on a flat bottom. The work is signed with the artist's name, Palekh, and the title-Siver Hoof.