Art of Russia

Today I will show photos of the Russian Matryoshka. I made these photos in the park during a vacation in Rostov-on-Don.

Brief information from the Internet:
"Matryoshka is a Russian wooden toy in the form of a painted doll, inside of which there are similar dolls of smaller size. The number of nested dolls is usually three or more. They usually have the shape of an egg with a flat bottom and consist of two parts: the upper and the lower.

It is believed that the Russian wooden painted doll appeared in Russia in the 90s of the XIX century, during the period of rapid economic and cultural development of the country.
In this regard, a whole artistic trend, known as the “Russian style”, appeared.

Russian wooden doll was called a Matryoshka. This was not done by chance. In the pre-revolutionary province, the names Matryona, Matryosh were considered one of the most common female names, which are based on the word "mother." These names were associated with the mother of a large family with good health and a portly figure.

Because of the softness, they mainly choose linden, less often alder or birch. Trees are usually cut down in early spring, they remove the bark, but not completely, so that the wood does not crack during drying. Then the logs are stored and dried for several years in a well ventilated place.

At the end of the process, each doll is coated with oil varnish. After the final drying and polishing, the artist proceeds to coloring. As paints used watercolor, gouache, tempera, less oil paints. Despite the variety of colors, craftsmen still prefer gouaches.

The photos I were taken with a Lenovo TAB 2 A10-70L tablet