The founding fathers of the Palekh miniature according to the version of the People’s Artist of the RSFSR Nikolai Zinoviev:

A new kind of art — Palekh miniature — could not appear on its own. The transition from icon painting to modern Palekh was carried out by 7 masters who were determined to carry their craft through the ages.

All of them are honored artists of the RSFSR, whose work in general terms represents the whole of Palekh and whose work new Palekh masters learn.

Before the revolution, he was a simple icon painter. His talent was revealed already in the process of developing the art of Palekh miniatures. He liked to collect wild flowers, lay them out on the desktop and create drawings based on them. He worked spontaneously, by inspiration, without preliminary sketches. He tried himself not only in lacquer miniature: he painted on porcelain, created theatrical scenery, illustrated "The Tale of Igor’s Campaign"

Before the revolution he was a great master of icon painting. He was mainly engaged in mural painting of churches, which was reflected in his miniatures. He painted in soft, naturalistic colors. Instead of a sketch, he made a drawing before starting work. He liked to add colors to the white for the future drawing: blue for the waves, green for the trees. He often highlighted the contours of mountains and hillocks with gold.

Vakurov’s works differ in depth of content. He portrayed the revolution, wrote about the fate of Pushkin. He experimented with color schemes and elements of Armenian miniature art. Before work, he made numerous sketches, selected material, and hatched an idea. He paid great attention to bleaching preparation. He made interesting, fantastic waveforms, and painted the heads of the characters in dark brown tones. He was the only one who had a surprisingly good combination of bright red tones with blues and greens.

He combined the Moscow school of Simon Ushakov of the 17th century and the Palekh icon painting of the 18th century, and sometimes more ancient motifs. He designed each item with a particularly precise sense of proportion. For a better color, he added opposite tones to the first liquid layers of paint: in blue — yellow, in green — brown. He abundantly highlighted the clothes with gold and silver. He wrote a lot on the topic of patriotism of the Russian people, his interpretations of the plots are full of humor.

Ivan Markichev 1883 – 1955

At the beginning of his career, he restored monuments of the 17th century, as a result of which he became imbued with monumental statics. He liked to write about ordinary, everyday life: peasant labor, songs, fishing and hunting. His painting was distinguished by special tenderness: it weakly applied shadows, was minimalistic in highlighting with gold and silver. His theme is everyday life, village life, he treated it with lyrics. He knew how to write rye especially well. Love for nature, land and work is read in his works.

Alexander Kotukhin 1886 – 1961

He added his own finds to the Stroganov style. He wrote both on the theme of fairy tales, and on modernity and on literary topics. He made the shadow fusions much darker than other masters, and the heads of the characters were very light. He abundantly used gold and silver to highlight his works, and paid great attention to this. His drawings are bright and ornate.

Dmitry Butorin 1891 – 1960

This artist liked to draw fights of legendary heroes. He did not really like to draw a preliminary drawing, and if he did, he almost did not use it. He created yellow-brown landscapes and made a bright, cheerful painting. He painted the heads and figures of the characters with great love. He made light yellow heads with white highlights. He painted figures anatomically accurately. He stood for the truthfulness of life images