Stop 07

House on a Chicken’s Leg. | Māja uz vistas kājas.
Casein | Kazeīns, 31.5 in x 27 in (80.01 cm x 68.58 cm), 1948.

My father brought fairy tales to life with his illustrations, but left a lot of room for the viewer’s own imagination. In House on a Chicken’s Leg, he depicts the residence of Baba Yaga, a hag or witch character who appears in Slavic and Eastern European folklore. In one well-known tale, a young girl visits the hag and is given three impossible tasks to do. She is able to complete the tasks using a magic doll given to her by her mother. The girl eventually escapes, and Baba Yaga is turned into a crow. In my father’s treatment, the deep blue forest along the horizon is evocative of the great evergreen forests of northern Latvia.