Mezrina, Anna
Mezrina, Anna Afanas’evna
Born 1853 in the sloboda (tax-exempt settlement) of Dymkovo, in present-day Kirov; died there Aug. 21, 1938. Designer of Dymkovo toys.
Mezrina’s toys include individual figures (Lady With a Muff and Bear-Musician—both in the Museum of Folk Art, Moscow) and genre compositions (The Bath and The Send-off—both in the Toy Museum, Zagorsk; clay and tempera, 1930’s). They are marked by a serene quality, generalized forms, and bright, decorative painting (large areas of local color and clear, geometric ornamentation). Mezrina’s pupils included E. A. Koshkina, O. I. Konovalova, Z. F. Bezdenezhnykh, and E. I. Penkina.