MATRYOSHKA DOLLS

The matryoshka, a set of four to eight hollow wooden dolls of graduated size nesting inside each other, is the most familiar item of Russian folk art today and possibly one of the most ancient. Legends abound of similar nesting dolls in Siberia, executed in precious metals, and the rounded female figure was a familiar fertility symbol in pagan Russia. Yet the matryoshka may well be of comparatively recent origin, its form derived from a Japanese prototype that caught the eye of the avant-garde artist Sergei Malyutin during the 1890s. Malyutin's patroness, Princess Tenisheva, was an active promoter of the folk art revival of this period; he sought out items with appeal for the Russian market that could be made at the crafts school on her estate, Talashkino. It was here that Malyutin designed the first known matryoshka.

The most ubiquitous matryoshka is the pink-cheeked peasant woman in native sarafan, her head covered with the traditional scarf. Variations soon appeared, however. Nests of dolls with the faces of famous writers, members of artistic circles, military heroes, or members of a family were created during the early twentieth century. A century later, though the original doll is still being produced, matryoshka painters have adapted to the modern market, creating nesting sets of Soviet political leaders, U.S. presidents, Russian tsars, literary figures, and famous Russian portraits. Modern matryoshkas by skilled artists, who often work in acrylic paint, command correspondingly high prices; though folk art in form, in execution they are works of high art.

See also: folklore

bibliography

Hilton, Alison. (1995). Russian Folk Art. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Priscilla Roosevelt