Palekh

Palekh is a village in the old Vladimir-Suzdal country, renowned for the skill of its icon painters. Poor soil gave its inhabitants reason to seek work beyond farming, and painting sacred images became a distinctive craft. Palekh painters worked for churches and monasteries as well as producing icons for sale.

Ivan IV granted Palekh to his son Ivan in 1572. By the middle of the seventeenth century its painters were sufficiently numerous to be mentioned alongside those of Shuya and Kholuy as sellers of icons at markets. In the eighteenth century local workshops developed their own manner, drawing on older Russian traditions while adapting to new influences. Families trained apprentices and carried their work beyond the village, making Palekh a recognised centre of religious painting.