The box ‘I Shall Saddle a Horse’ was painted by a Mstyora artist Nikolai Klykov. Like Palekh, the village of Mstyora prior to the revolution was considered one of the largest icon painting centers. The founders of the local miniature painting style followed icon painting traditions and managed to develop unique works of art. One of the characteristic features of Mstyora icon painting, which was later introduced into lacquer miniatures, was the extraordinary beauty of the landscapes.

Local artists did not start making lacquer miniatures on papier mâché objects immediately: they mastered this craft only in the early 1930s, as they spent more than ten years researching and working on it. The first of the Mstyora masters who tried his hand at lacquer painting was the author of this miniature — Nikolai Klykov. He dedicated more than forty years of his life to icon painting, in which he achieved high mastery. The artist even taught icon painting techniques at the Stroganov School and the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius. He mastered different old styles and, according to contemporaries, could easily create compositions on any subject.

The miniature ‘I Shall Saddle a Horse’ is one of the artist’s earliest works in lacquer painting. However, even this work demonstrates Klykov’s creative freedom in the choice of topics, the interpretation of imagery and the construction of compositions.

The painting was based on a poem by a poet of the first half of the 19th century Aleksey Koltsov ‘An Old Man’s Song’. His hero dreams about returning his youth:

In the left part of the miniature, the master captured an old man saddling a horse: he takes off his hat from his gray head in a welcoming gesture. To the right, his family members watch the hero’s eccentricities, someone waves their hand, responding to the greeting.

The bluish haze of the landscape and the golden reflection on the clothes of the characters echo the traditions of Stroganov painting. This school of icon painting originated at the end of the 16th century, when the Stroganovs, who were wealthy merchants, moved from Novgorod to Solvychegodsk. They established there an icon painting workshop, where artists gradually worked on their own unique manner. It was distinguished by the accuracy of painting and active use of gold and silver on top of sophisticated color combinations. Icon painters of this school traditionally depicted on icons fantastic landscapes with different hills and plants: they realistically conveyed the greenery with meticulously detailed elements.

Besides the Stroganov school’s influence, Nikolai Klykov also drew inspiration from Russian lubok (traditional folk prints): the artist placed lines from the poem along the edges of the painting, which was quite typical for lubok artworks.