Show all images on one page	#001807 Title: Four Lads hang around my House Artist: Demidova Lidiya Alexandrovna(born 1927) Size: 16x11x3 Size (inches): 6.25x4.25x1.25 Price : $465 SOLD!

This traditional Mstera box was created by Lidiya Alexandrovna Demidova. Demidova was born in 1927 and still working. She is a participant of lots of Expos.
The box shows the fragment from the Russian folk song called "Four lads hang around my house". It is about the most beautiful girl in the village who has many suitors. Here she is depicted in the middle of the composition. She sits in the balcony of her house and spins yarn. Her four suitors hang around her house trying to attract attention of the beauty. One of them plays the accordion, while another one plays the balalayka. The third one sings, and fourth lad reads poetry and presents the girl the bunch of wild flowers. The village girls depicted here and there throughout the composition chuckle looking at this scene, and whisper various gossips.
The scene is painted in bright tempera paints against the dark background. Gold paint is richly used to detail the foliage of trees and the costumes of all characters.
The box is made out of paper-mache. Black lacquer covers the exterior and red lacquer covers the interior of the box. A gold foliage pattern frames the composition, and decorates the sides of the box. The lid is hinged from the top of the composition, and the box sits flat. At the bottom of the composition the artist writes in gold Mstera, and her name, while the title is written in the upper part of the composition also in gold paints.