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Matryoshkas date from 1890. The story
goes that Sergei Maliutin, a painter
from a folk crafts workshop in
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the Abramtsevo estate of a famous Russian
industrialist and patron of arts Savva
Mamontov, saw a set of
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Japanese wooden dolls representing
Shichi-fuku-jin, the Seven Gods of
Fortune. Inspired, Maliutin drew
- a
sketch of a Russian version of the toy.
It was carved by Vasiliy Zvezdochkin in
a toy workshop in
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Sergiyev Posad and
painted by Sergei Maliutin. It consisted
of eight dolls; the outermost was a girl
in an apron,
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then the dolls alternated
between boy and girl, with the innermost
– a baby.
- In
1900, M.A. Mamontova, the wife of Savva
Mamontov, presented the dolls at the
World Exhibition in Paris
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and the toy
earned a bronze medal. Soon, many other
places in Russia started making matryoshki of various
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styles.
Modern artists create many new styles of
nesting dolls. Today, many talented
Russian artists specialize
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in painting
themed matryoshka dolls that feature
specific categories of subjects, people
or nature.
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