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The work "The Guards of Snow" of 1922 was created in America and in many ways it resembles a sketch of the scenery for the Rimsky-Korsakov's opera "The Snow Maiden" – "The Northern Night", 1919. The artist liked to notice and emphasized in his work the idea of "living Nature" in every possible way, when stones, rocks, the sky and trees are full of faces and seem alive. Later, he developed this idea to perfection in his "portraits" of mountains.

"On the border of the Far Far Away Kingdom, there is a giant standing – a wild man. Nobody can walk or ride, on foot or on horse", according to a folk tale. Even while studying at the Academy, in the studio of Kuindzhi, I decided to paint such a picture. ... My "wild man" against a bright lemon sky stood out among other things. I did not think that such a break out of the conventional framework would be suitable. But, apparently, it turned to the contrary. Kuindzhi brought Ayvazovsky to my cubbyhole. The marine painter exclaimed in a friendly manner: "Who tells fairy tales here?" – and he looked at my giant for a long time. "It's a fairy tale, a real fairy tale. The realty and a fairy tale all together... The miraculous giants rose, both menacing and gentle, proud and appealing. An experienced traveler, who saw a lot of things, invented fairy tales... Beauty is not opium, but wings of success. After all, every man has a dream of the Far Far Away Kingdom, the Land of the Beautiful. And is it not true to say about the places, that everybody can visit. The most real truth is to recall the existence, without crafty fancies, using both color and sound".

N. Roerich. Far Far Away Kingdom.

The theme of treasure and mystery is one of the favorites in the works of N. Roerich. Later, the artist will develop this theme in the picture "Far Far Away Kingdom", 1940.