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# The Three Princesses of the Underground Kingdom
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/tri-tsarevny-podzemnogo-tsarstva/
- Published: 2022-12-14T06:30:41.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:37:24.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Art, Museums, People, Ethnography

The Three Princesses of the Underground Kingdom. Viktor Vasnetsov, 1884.

The painting was composed on a motif from the Russian folk tale of Ivan Tsarevich, who descends into the underground kingdom and meets there the Golden, Silver and Copper Princesses. Vasnetsov took up the subject while fulfilling a commission from Savva Mamontov for the board of the Donets Railway. The Three Princesses of the Underground Kingdom were meant to personify the riches of the Donets land, and so in place of the silver princess we see a princess of coal in a gleaming black gown.

The railway ultimately declined the picture, and both versions of the canvas ended up in private collections, with the collectors Morozov and Tereshchenko. The Morozov version, of 1881, now belongs to the Tretyakov Gallery, the Tereshchenko version, of 1884, to the Kyiv Picture Gallery.