Подпись, дата и надпись слева внизу: Н.Рерих / Псков / 1903

In 1903–1904, N. Roerich made a big trip to ancient Russian cities. He was particularly attracted by the "antiquity". "When you look at an ancient painting, old tiles or ornaments, you think: What a beautiful life it was! What kind of strong people lived it!". It was during this period that the young artist got the idea of the Covenant protecting the cultural heritage of peoples, since even at that time the ancient monuments were rapidly collapsing. For Nikolay Roerich, Pskov became not only one of his favorite places of the Ancient Russia, but also a prototype of the Russia's future. Depicting the Holy Russia on his canvases during the last decades of his life, the artist painted churches that are in many ways reminiscent of the ancient churches in Pskov.

"...should we look for beauty? We are so lazy and incurious that we know little even about the beautiful Pskov, which is so close to us... How nice are the old houses with their stylish porches and windows, that are used now for the most banal purposes, such as a furniture warehouse or a storeroom. And how little all this is known to the majority of us, who look bitter because of lack of new experiences".

N. Roerich. A Trip to Ancient Places.