A talented Mstyora icon painter and miniature artist, Ivan Nikolayevich Morozov (1884–1962) came from a family of icon painters. Having started his career at the age of nine, the artist worked for a long time in the renowned icon painting workshops of Mstyora (from 1893 to 1907 and from 1911 to 1914).

Ivan Morozov is considered one of the founders of Mstyora lacquer miniature painting on papier-mâché. In 1926, he joined the “Artel of Ancient Russian Painting”, and in 1940 — the Artists’ Union of the USSR. In 1949, Morozov was awarded the title of “Honored Artist”. He was also presented with the Order of the Red Banner of Labor in 1954.

Morozov’s art is rather simple: the artist creates his works according to the laws of decorative painting. A characteristic feature of Morozov’s miniatures is pronounced “carpet-like” ornamentation — his paintings resemble multicolored carpets. The artist often rhythmically alternates color spots on the plane, guided by a simple rule: if a color is added to the composition, it must be repeated several times at certain intervals, but in a different tone.

In his miniatures, Morozov opts for vivid, cheerful tones, with a predominance of bright, stylish shades of red, blue, and green. Like other Mstyora painters, he prefers elegant color transitions from tone to tone. His compositions are always balanced and descriptive: they can be read as fascinating fairy tales and entertaining stories. Morozov’s decorative drawings are deeply rooted in folk identity and figurative conventionality inherent in folklore, which makes his works especially appealing.

Ivan Morozov loved depicting scenes from folklife: games and celebrations, promenades, street scenes, dances, round dances, and fortune telling on wreaths. He turned to historical themes, fairy-tale plots and literary works by Alexander Pushkin. The scene depicted on the presented box — “The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights” — is incredibly beautiful. The lid shows the meeting of the heroic bogatyrs (ancient Russian warriors) with the princess. The princess sits in front of them in a beautiful red dress and gestures to show that her heart belongs to her beloved Yelisei. The sides of the box are decorated with continuous colored patterns that fill the entire surface of the item.