Fresh Cavalier/Tretiakov Gallery work

This marvelous box was painted by a talented Fedoskino artist, Mikhail Polyakov. It shows how Russian lacquer miniature artists are able to bring hand-painted masterpieces into regular people's homes. "Fresh Cavalier" as this work is entitled was originally painted on canvas by Pavel Fedotov (1815-1852). Exhibited in the Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery, it is one of the popular pieces viewed in the entire Museum.

Painted originally in 1846, "Fresh Cavalier" was a finished oil-on-canvas. The first work on the story of a poor official showing off his first order to a cook was a sepia drawing created in the early 1840s in a series of critical domestic scenes. Then the novice artist decided to turn the sketch about the morning of the official into his first full-fledged plot picture with a complex composition. The finished picture, together with the second work "Picky Bride", he presented to the Art Academy, where they were highly appreciated by Karl Bryullov. Soon, in 1847, both paintings were presented to the public and made a real sensation both in the academic environment and among the metropolitan public. The next exhibition, along with fame, brought the attention of censorship: it was forbidden to remove lithographs from the "Fresh Cavalier" because of the irreverent image of the order, and it was impossible to remove the order from the picture without destroying its plot...
Interesting, that this painting has two more nick names: "Fresh cavalier", or "Morning of the official who received the first cross(order)", or " Consequences of a party"...
This lacquer box painted by Fedoskino artist Polyakov is quite presize, pretty much detailed.
The box is made out of paper-mache. It has a hinge from the left of the composition and rests flat. Black lacquer covers the exterior and dark red lacquer covers the interior of the box. The work is signed with the artist's name, the village of Fedoskino and the year of 2002.