In 1904, N.K. Roerich turned to an activity that was new for him – the applied arts and interior design. In Talashkino, the estate of Princess M.K. Tenisheva, a well-known patron of arts and organizer of applied arts workshops, Roerich designed the interior of a room – a sofa, a table, an armchair, a bookcase. Three ornamental majolica friezes on the theme of “The North” with drawings depicting the hunt for walruses, dances, reindeer, were to decorate the walls of the room. The Roerich’s design was distinguished by the unity of style, a great artistic taste and knowledge of the art of Northern Peoples, from where he borrowed the original data for his drawings. The objects created based on his sketches were unique.

In his sketch “The North. Reindeer”, Roerich was guided in many respects by samples of petroglyphs, which are widespread in Siberia. As well as in rock carvings, and in the works of masters from Uelen, the composition of N.K. Roerich is dominated by flat line graphics. The richness of the rhythmics of contours, silhouettes, the exquisite harmony of the masses, the conventionality of spatial plans – all this corresponds to the spirit of the past and the overall decorativeness of the majolica styles.

Roerich’s resorting to the traditional representations of the Arctic tribes was not accidental. Here, in the north of Asia, he found “the legacy of highly artistic Siberian antiquity” and resorted to this source as the most reliable one for the reconstruction of the way of life and the artistic culture of the Stone Age people.

(E. P. Matochkin. Cosmicality of the Art of N.K. Roerich.)

The projects of the frieze are stored in the Russian Museum and the Tretyakov Gallery; the majolica, in the collection of the Smolensk Museum of Fine Arts.