Thereupon, the Palekh icon painters moved into lacquer painting and began to commercially manufacture small works of art, painted and lacquered on papiermâché using the egg tempera technique. In 1925, the artistic Palekh lacquer works were shown for the first time in Paris, to great success. At the instigation of Maxim Gorky, a museum was opened in Palekh in 1935.

The Doll’s House Museum is exhibiting lacquer miniatures from a Swiss private collection. The items, around 60 in total, were painted in Palekh after 1990: plaques, caskets, tins and utility items. The main topics are fairy-tale scenes, everyday scenes with people in local costumes as well as themes from old Russian heroic epics. A colourful Christmas exhibition with a difference on the magic of academic folk art.