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BOX WITH THREE SCENES FROM PUSHKIN'S "THE STONE GUEST"

Creator(s): Sergei Dmitrievich Solonin (Painter)

Currently in storage


About this object

The cover of the hinged box is decorated with three scenes from Aleksandr Pushkin's "The Stone Guest" (Kamennyi gost'), a version of the story of Don Juan. At left Don Juan, who has recently returned from exile for the killing of Commander Don Alvar in a duel, stands with Laura, who he has sought out. The body of her lover Don Carlos, who Don Juan has just killed in a duel, lies in the background. In the panel at right, Don Juan, wearing a disguise, meets Doña Anna, widow of Commander Don Alvar, in the cemetery near his gravesite and the stone monument depicting him. (This is a change from Mozart's Don Giovanni, in which Don Alvar is Anna's father rather than her husband.) He manages to get an invitation to her house. Pushkin's impudent Don Juan invites the statue to his rendezvous with his widow, in order to stand guard outside the door during their tryst. In the center the stone statue, or guest, of Commander Don Alvar has arrived and Doña Anna is in a swoon, having just learned that Don Juan is his murderer. The sides and bottom of the box are lacquered black and decorated with a gilt rinceau. The interior is lacquered red and bears a dedicatory inscription from Polina Zhemchuzhina (Mme. Molotov) to Marjorie Merriweather Post.

Object name:
BOX WITH THREE SCENES FROM PUSHKIN'S "THE STONE GUEST"
Made from:
Lacquer -- papier-mâché -- tempera -- brass (hinge)
Made in:
RUSSIA: Palekh (formerly USSR: Palekh)
Date made:
1936
Size:
4.4 x 33.7 x 15.7 cm (1 3/4 x 13 1/4 x 6 3/16 in.)

Detailed information for this item

Catalog number:
35.25
Class:
LACQUER
Signature marks:
INSCRIPTION; SIGNATURE N2112 [Cyrillic] "Kamennyi gost'" A.S. Pushkina. Handwritten in gilt Cyrillic cursive, on lower left corner of cover. Design number (?) 2112 and "The Stone Guest" [by] Aleksandr Pushkin. SIGNATURE; DATE [Cyrillic] S. Solonin s. Palekh 1936g. Handwritten in gilt Cyrillic cursive, on lower right corner of cover Signature of artist Sergei Solonin, village of Palekh, 1936 INSCRIPTION [Cyrillic] MADAM DEVIS NA DOBRUIU PAMIAT'. P. Zhemchuzhina 15 marta 1937g. gor. Moskva Handwritten in gilt letters, interior of lid. Translation: To Mme. Davies / in honor of our meeting [lit. in good memory]. / P[olina] Zhemchuzhina / March 15, 1937 / City of Moscow
Credit line:
Bequest of Marjorie Merriweather Post, 1973