Russian Lacquer Miniatures from Fedoskino Village

Fedoskino is a village only about 40 kilometers from Moscow, and is the first official Russian school of lacquer miniature painting The village is totally devoted for over 200 years to the art of lacquer miniatures. In addition to the art school, there is a museum in the village totally devoted to these painted Russian lacquer boxes that was founded in 1795! Up until the fall of the USSR, the Fedoskino school was basically a cooperative controlled by the government with graduating artists required to live and paint in the village "factory" setting which also housed the art school and the box-makers guild that created the paper-mache blanks for the artists.