Монограмма слева внизу, надпись справа вверху: III картина

In 1919, Thomas Beecham, who sponsored D. Dyagilev's "Russian Seasons", invited N. Roerich to paint sketches for several operas of N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, including "The Tale of Tsar Saltan". In this period, Nikolay Konstantinovich wanted to make a trip to India, and the sketches for the opera were given a purely oriental, Indian flavor. However, the Pushkin's tale itself came from the East, and we can see some motives of Mahabharata, the Indic epic therein. The performance has never been realized. The sketch of the costumes of Russian noblewomen was had an oriental coloring.