The Snow Maiden Fantasy Art Postcard

The Snow Maiden is a Russian folk-tale about a girl, daughter of Frost (the father) and Spring (the mother), made of snow. The tale was the subject of a play by the Russian playwright Alexander Ostrovsky. Snow Maiden lived safely among people as an adopted daughter of an old and childless couple. She was beautiful and every man fell in love with her but not for long, because she could not love back. All the suitors, and among them the shepherd and pipe-player, Lelle, one by one, left her for her less beautiful but lively friends. The Snow Maiden envied them and asked her mother, Spring, to give her the ability to love. Love was fatal for her. She fell in love with Mizgir and was melted by the Sun. The play by Alexander Ostrovsky became the basis for the opera by N. Rimsky-Korsakov. Many Russian artists painted the stage sets, and curtains, designed costumes for the play and opera. Among them Vasnetsov, Vrubel.