Tales of Pavel Bazhov

Original title: Сказы Павла Бажова

Oleg Korovin, a gifted Russian artist and illustrator, became closely associated with the legendary Ural folktales of Pavel Bazhov. In the late 1940s, he began working on illustrations for Bazhov’s stories, participating alongside other artists in the 1949 edition of The Malachite Box. Korovin gained widespread recognition for his work on Bazhov’s tales with the 1952 edition, where his illustrations stood out for their vivid depiction of the Ural folklore.

For the centenary of Pavel Bazhov, Korovin created a special miniature edition of Skazy, published in Perm. The book’s magical stories are perfectly complemented by Korovin’s illustrations, which bring to life the mythical landscapes and characters of the Urals. His drawings do not merely illustrate the text; they expand the world Bazhov created, adding details that exist between the lines and beyond them. The writer Yevgeny Permyak noted: “…People rarely argue about handwriting or artistic style, but without arguing, they naturally gravitate toward what impresses, delights, and allows the artist’s brush to become a true co-author of the writer’s pen. This is exactly what Oleg Korovin’s illustrations achieve. They draw the viewer into the visual world where the literary work unfolds. They enrich the text with details that are not explicitly written on the page but exist between and beyond the lines…”

Korovin’s contributions to The Malachite Box culminated in the 1961 edition, a monumental work featuring full illustrations by him, later republished in Sverdlosk in 1967. Over decades, Korovin remained the principal illustrator of Bazhov’s tales in Moscow, bringing the magic and mystery of the Ural stories to readers across Russia and abroad. His mastery of both graphics and painting earned him recognition as a truly versatile and imaginative artist.