Slavs on the Dnieper. (1905)

“In the Russian chronicles of the XII century it is said that for a long time the shores of river Dnieper were populated with tribes."They had own customs and laws of their fathers, and traditions."The picture shows one of the aspects of the life of the pagan Slavs - the collection of tribute princely retinue.” (A.Yuferova, Nicholas Roerich.)

Building the Ships. (1903)

Roerich’s talent of a painter resurrected ancient images of the Slavic land. Slavs were not primitive savages. Their diverse labor, development of the social order are shown in Building a Town, Building the Ships, Slavs on the Dnieper, Gathering tribute and many other paintings based on deep knowledge of historical material.

"When addressing the topics of prehistory, N.Roerich reveals the formation of the human principle, the growth of consciousness, talks about creative discoveries, inventions of primitive people, finds peculiar beauty in them, poeticises the bright world around them," wrote Boris Mikhaylovsky.

Building the Town. 1902

“I had a painting called Building the Town. In it, I wanted to express the aspiration to create, when in the midst of building up new strongholds pile up towers and walls. Since then it has been joyfull to go back to the same concept of creativeness, which is a natural opposition of destruction.[...] In our days, when we have gone through so much destruction, each building is particularly valuable. Recently various wordly-wise men have been assuring us that the world is in the throes of material depression, an unprecedented material crisis, and because of this any building is inappropriate. [...] The crisis of the world is not material, but it is spiritual. It can only be healed by spiritual renewal. [...] Now the whole world is sharply divided into light and darkness, creation and destruction. [...] It is now more precious to see building. After all, we all know how a builder is surrounded by difficulties, what a devotee he should be to overcome the onslaught of destruction, chaos and darkness. Indeed, the darkness is dissipated by the light, but then the light should be more intense than the darkness to dispel it. [...]

The Messenger. (Tribe has risen against tribe).1897

In November 1897, the Imperial Academy of Art held an exhibition and a solemn act of awarding the title of artist. This title was given Nicholas Roerich for his painting The Messenger. Tribe has risen against tribe, or, as it was listed in the reports of the Academy, Slavs and Vikings.

Tribe has risen against tribe - how many spectacular moments this theme promises an artist: a sudden attack, lights of fires... But there is no ostentatious admiring of the old. At first glance, the plot seems to be very modest and non-winning. A messenger with a rower thread through a river at night. An internal war broke out, and he is quick to warn the neighbors, or perhaps, to ask for their help. The messenger is rather old and has seen a lot in his life. Therefore, he has been outfitted for the dangerous path. He is concerned. He has to find the words so that people believe him and respond. Will it be possible to stop the blood feud or will it flare up even more? The landscape on the painting takes the viewer into the past. Peaked tent buildings surrounded by a fence are seen on the shore. In some places, there are muted lights of twinkling fires. The soft light of the moon pulls out of some dark figures floating in a boats, increasing their anxiety and alertness. The picture captures one’s imagination and makes the viewer empathise.

Idols (1901)

While working on this paining Roerich wrote: "The sketch for "Idols" makes me happy – it is strong, bright, no drama in it, no sentimentality."  As in previous works of Nicholas Roerich, romantic elation is certainly inherent in "Idols". But this is no idyllic romanticism, dramatisation or tender emotion to the olden days. These are replaced by solemn severity, so characteristic of the ancient man before the face of Mother Nature. The painting shows ‘kapische’ (temple), enclosed by a solid palisade of logs. In the middle of the temple there stands a large wooden idol, next to it are several smaller ones. On the stockade are the skulls of sacrificial animals. A white-haired old man came to the pagan sanctuary. Boats floating on the river and the motionless grin of skulls tell him about the unity of life and death. He knows this truth of being and it does not scare him. This artist calls this integral worldview "a healthy pagan mood." Roerich has set himself a difficult task - to convey this mood in an expressive and authentic form. And he found it. Ring composition, generalising the lines of the drawing, rhythmic matching of the colored areas gave the painting solidity. Decoratively sonorous style of the "Idols" is far from the style, which was characteristic of "The messenger". By comparison, the "Idols" is a new stage of the artist’s creativity. This painting is the result of a complex synthesis of traditions of national painting with the experience of some Western artists contemporary to Roerich.

The Sinister (1901)

In Russian fairy tales crows are the wisest of all birds. Songs and stories endue them with the ability to speak and presage. They are silent guardians of mysteries, endowed with the ability to anticipate the worst. Roerich was able to convey a sense of fearful anxiety and alertness. Knowing how in later years the current social events were reflected in Roerich’s art, one could argue that The Sinister was his first attempt to symbolically express his attitude to modernity. After returning from abroad, Roerich could not help feeling the tense situation in the country. Revitalisation of the labor movement, peasant and student unrest, political killings - all this made Roerich think about the inevitability of reconstruction of the whole way of life in Russia. A motif of proclamation of ominous events is present in The Sinister.

Overseas Guests (1901)

“Midnight visitors are floating. The shelving shore of the Gulf of Finland stretches along like a light band. The water has engorged the azure of the clear vernal sky and the wind ripples on it, whisking opaque purplish stripes and circles. Flock of seagulls down at the waves, they swayed lightly, and only under the very front of the keel of the boat flashed their wings. Something unfamiliar and unprecedented has alarmed their peaceful life. A new jet is pushing through still water, it is running into age-old Slavic life, will pass through forests and swamps, will roll through a wide field, rising Slavic race who will see rare and unfamiliar guests and who will marvel at their strictly combating, outlandish custom.” (N.Roerich)