Oil-based paint is the primary medium used to paint this portrait. The palette used to paint this composition contains white, blue, red, and skin colored paint. The detailing is exquisite, which is proven simply by studying the facial features that the artist was able to paint ever so naturally. The composition fades off at the edges of the lid, which helps to intensify the young woman's likeness. The box is constructed out of paper-mache made in the village of Fedoskino.
Black lacquer is used to paint the exterior of the box and red lacquer to paint the interior.
To decorate the box the artist chooses, instead of painting the filigree, to apply individual pieces of polished aluminum into precise patterns all along the box to look like filigree. This is an extremely difficult process, which has to be done in haste because the pieces have to be applied to the box during the lacquer s drying process. The box has a hinge located to the left of the portrait and rests on a flat bottom.