Tale of Frog Princess

This original composition was painted by a well-known Palekh artist Bykova Ekaterina.
Composition is showing major charecters of Russian Fairy Tale "Princess Frog". The story begins with the words:
"There was a Tsar who had three three unmarried sons. The tsar wanted them all to marry and carry on their line. He told them, "Each of you must go out to the field beyond the palace grounds and shoot an arrow into the air as far as you can. You must marry whoever lives at the place where your arrow lands." The three sons did as their father had asked. The arrow of the eldest son landed in the courtyard of a boyar (nobleman) and the boyar's daughter picked it up. The arrow of the middle son fell into a merchant's yard, where the merchant's daughter found it. The youngest son, Prince Ivan, shot his arrow into a swamp.
When he went into the swamp to find it, he found a frog holding the arrow in its mouth. Being a dutiful son, he did what his father had asked, and all three sons married their brides...
In the wedding feast Frog became a beautiful woman, I van came back home, found her frog skin and burned it, that was a mistake. His frog-wife disappered and he has to go through many adventures to find and take her from Baba Yaga and Koshey the Deathless.
Finally the Frog became most beautiful lady and Ivan lived with her very happily!
The color pallet using by Bykova is extremely pleasing to the eye. Various shades of blue, yellow and red are dominate here. Contrast is spectacular! The decoration of the sides is marvelous-rich gold ornamentation painting! On a front side we can see portraits of Baba Yaga and Princess.
The box is constructed from paper-mache. Black lacquer is used to paint the exterior of the piece while red lacquer completes the interior of the work. The lid is hinged from the top and the box rests on the flat bottom. The artist wrote his name, the title and the village name of Palekh at the bottom of the lid in gold paint.