Ivan Dmitrievich Sytin considered illustration to be a very important aspect of children’s books: “This side of the publishing process has always been the subject of special concerns of our publishing house, and nothing was overlooked here.”

The museum presents an edition of Nikolay Nekrasov’s tale “Grandfather Frost the Red Nose” illustrated by the artist Alexey Nikanorovich Komarov (1879–1977). Komarov studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where he chose his artistic path and became an animal painter. Komarov considered drawing simple geometric shapes boring. Two years later, he left school and, in his own words, opted ”… for forests, hounds, and hares.” The artist recalled,

Around 1901, Komarov began collaborating with the magazine “Hunting with Dogs and Guns”, which was published in the Venyovsky Uyezd of the Tula Governorate. This was the artist’s first major commission, which started his career as an animal painter. From 1902–1903, Komarov began working with children’s magazines (“Firefly”, “Guiding Light”), and the publishing houses of Sytin, Mirimanov, Fyodorov-Davydov, Stupin, and Knebel. He was engaged in book design and exhibited his works. The artist’s photograph is placed in a literary and artistic collection dedicated to the fiftieth anniversary of Ivan Dmitrievich Sytin’s career in publishing “Half a Century for the Book 1866–1916”.

Alexey Nikanorovich Komarov always sought to achieve similarity and to reliably convey the features of the appearance and behavior of animals. He depicted animals in their natural environment. Among the artist’s favorite motifs were the inhabitants of the northern forests: capercaillie and moose. Komarov loved forest songbirds. His drawings lovingly convey the habits of tits, nuthatches, bullfinches, and goldfinches.