In this lacquer miniature, Alexander Kotukhin depicted several scenes from Pushkin’s fairy tale “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish”. He chose an interestingly shaped object to paint on — a paper stand. The master painted on the back plate of the stand and two removable plates. He decorated the base of the item with a gold ornament.

A conversation of an old man with a goldfish is depicted on the front plate: the man bows to her, and the fish listens to him in the depths of the raging sea. A scene in which the old woman, who has already turned into a tsaritsa (a queen) and feasts surrounded by servants, is painted on the back plate of the stand. On the central plate, which is hidden from the viewer’s eyes, the artist depicted one of the most dramatic moments of the fairy tale.

The old man returned home after the old woman had turned into a tsaritsa. She did not even look at him, instead she ordered him out of her sight:

Kotukhin created the paper stand ‘The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish’ in 1934. It was a difficult time in Russia as the government tightened the requirements for artists: they were expected to glorify the new political system and religion was almost outlawed, and dubbed as ‘opium for the people’.

The development of the Palekh miniature was adversely affected by the Soviet government’s bias towards the iconographic heritage, and mandatory usage of the “class approach” for all artworks. In order to preserve the spiritual element in their art, the masters turned to characters from folk songs, fairy tales, and other literary works.

The Palekh miniatures on literary topics comprised an extensive cultural layer, starting with the monument of Old Russian literature “The Tale of Igor”s Campaign” and ending with the works of classics: Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Rabelais, Cervantes, Shakespeare and others.

Alexander Pushkin became the first writer whose works were chosen by the Palekh masters for their miniatures. They mainly depicted his fairy tales. Those included “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish”, “The Tale of Tsar Saltan”, “The Tale of the Golden Cockerel”. Furthermore, other Pushkin’s works, such as poems and novellas, were used: ‘Ruslan and Lyudmila’, ‘The Fountain of Bakhchisaray’, ‘The Squire’s Daughter’, “The Stationmaster” and others.

When artists created miniatures on literary themes, they did not simply illustrate the text: the masters chose a specific character or a scene and, on this foundation, produced an independent work. Thus, miniature paintings were artworks in their own right with their own aesthetic value.

Later, the Palekh artists also proved themselves as wonderful book illustrators: in 1935, they started working on illustrating Pushkin’s fairy tales.