Russian splint

Who and why called them “cheap” is not known. Maybe because the pictures were cut out on lime boards (they called the bast then), maybe because they were sold in bast boxes ofeni-shipwrights, or, according to Moscow legend, everything went from Lubyanka, the street where making popular prints.

Humorous folk pictures sold at fairs as early as the 17th century, until the beginning of the 20th, were considered the most popular art form in Russia, although the attitude towards them was not serious, since in the higher strata of society they categorically refused to recognize as art what the common people created, self-taught , often on gray paper, to the joy of the peasant people. Continue reading →