$105.00

(In stock)

Number of Eggs: 3 pieces

Artist: Ivanova
Size: 3 inches
Style: Oil painting, watercolor, exceptional lacquer finish

Handmade in Russia, this set of wooden Matroushka Nesting Eggs features artistically designed, hand-carved and hand-painted miniatures, was personally selected from the artists that we have worked with for many years. The outer Matroushka Nesting Egg has 2 smaller egg-shaped dolls inside. They are all crafted of wood, brilliantly hand-painted with gouache and varnished with gloss finish.

These Matroushka Nesting Eggs reveal a story of a famous German Romantic fantasy author “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”. It was written in 1816 by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann and got a great popularity all around the world. No wonder, that this story found its reflection in Russian fine art, too. This story inspired Peter Tchaikovsky, a famous Russian composer to write the music for “The Nutcracker” – a fairy tale-ballet in two acts, three scenes. And today all over the world “The Nutcracker“ has become perhaps the most popular of all ballets, performed primarily around Christmas time.

Each Matroushka Nesting Egg is divided into two parts by vertical golden framework, so that six episodes of the story could be featured. Artist’s childlike manner of painting creates an extraordinary effect, bright and rich color palette of sapphire, rifle-green and vermeil red makes these masterpieces eye-catching and magical. To enhance an effect of festivity (the story takes place on Christmas Eve) the artist uses golden glitters while decorating Matroushka nesting eggs. But, as old Russian saying goes “all that glitters is not gold”, so the main value of this work-art is artist’s skill to feature emotions and feelings of characters through painting.

The story of the Nutcracker is depicted on Matroushka Nesting Eggs from start to end. The main characters are easily recognizable, i.e. - Marie, twelve years old girl, that has received the Nutcracker as a gift from her godfather Drosselmeyer, the Nutcracker with a huge head, a wide grinning mouth and a cottony beard, the Mouse King with its golden crowns. The Nutcracker takes the girl away with him to the Doll Kingdom, where Marie sees many wonderful things, and where the Nutcracker defeats the Mouse King with his sword. The smallest Matroushka Nesting Eggs tells features the happy end of the story – the Nutcracker turns into a young boy, asks her to marry him and takes her away to the Doll Kingdom, where she is crowned Queen.

This masterpiece can be a good gift for St. Valentine’s Day or Christmas for someone you love and appreciate. It will take a worthy place in any collection.