As the secretary of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, N. K. Roerich was sent in 1903 to the middle Russia and the north-western areas to get acquainted with the monuments of antiquity. As a result of his trip, the artist exhibited about a hundred sketches, written by him from the monuments of ancient Russian architecture. Peculiar is the approach that Roerich applied when creating his historical sketches. Directly from the railway station, he went to the monument that interested him and painted it under the influence of the first immediate experience, so that the impressions of the surrounding modernity could not disturb the artist’s mood.

In Nizhny Novgorod, he wrote several sketches depicting the towers of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin – a fortress founded in the 13th century (the start of construction of the white-stone kremlin dates back to 1374). This work vividly transmits the light effects. A sunny and warm wall leads the viewer from the first plan into the depths and upwards of the picture towards the powerful watchtowers rising on the hill. Roerich seems to make us peer and examine the monument slowly, absorbing the flavor of antiquity.