* ROERICH, NICHOLAS (1874-1947) Warrior. Oil on canvas, 105 by 74.5 cm. Executed in 1894.

* ROERICH, NICHOLAS (1874-1947) Warrior. Oil on canvas, 105 by 74.5 cm. Executed in 1894. Provenance: Acquired from Tatiana Roerich, the artist’s sister-in-law, by E. Velichko-Mukhina and S. Mukhin in 1953. Collection of E. Velichko-Mukhina and S. Mukhin until the 1990s. Acquired from the above by the present owner. Authenticity of the work has been confirmed by the expert O. Glebova. Authenticity has also been confirmed by the expert I. Gofman. Authenticity has also been confirmed by the expert O. Rumyantseva. Exhibited: K 110-letiyu so dnya rozhdeniya N.K. Rerikha i 80-letiyu S.N. Rerikha, State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow, October 1984. Literature: Exhibition catalogue, K 110-letiyu so dnya rozhdeniya N.K. Rerikha i 80-letiyu S.N. Rerikha, Moscow, State Museum of Oriental Art, 1984, No. 2. Perepiska N.K. Rerikha s L.M. Antokol’skim (1894–1899 gg.), Moscow, Direkt-Media, 2011, mentioned in the text under correspondence from 1894. E. Velichko, “O kartine “Voin”, Del’fis, No. 4 (44), 2005, pp. 110–111. Related literature: For studies of the present lot, see the works on paper archive of the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, file No. 2382. Within the huge legacy that Roerich left, Warrior, from the series “Beginning of Rus. Slavs” has a special place, as an exceptionally rare example of the artist’s early creativity, among his works on the heroic epic theme. This large-scale canvas, conceived and painted by the 20-year old student at the Academy of Arts, became in its way the aspiring artist’s creative manifesto, his vehicle for declaring with utter certainty his interest in the early history of the Russian state, which Roerich remained true to throughout his life. The whole cycle of Bogatyr images, created over a number of years, embodied reverence for history. The subject matter of these works, inspired by numerous learned articles from the Proceedings of the Russian Archaeological Society (of which Roerich was a devoted reader from a young age) bolstered by Russian epic and embroidered by imagination, became the main theme of the artist’s pre-revolutionary oeuvre. Moreover, Warrior, or, as the artist called it himself, Knight of Pskov, qualifies chronologically as the first among these works. Roerich conceived the idea for this composition in the early summer of 1894 at the Izvara estate where he had gone for the holidays at the end of the Academy’s academic year. He wrote of his brainchild in a letter to his fellow student L.M. Antokolsky: “...this summer I have decided to paint a large historical study, but what it is shall be my secret”. Nevertheless, after a while the artist decided to lift the curtain somewhat and in July wrote to his friend again: “...this is more of an historical and archaeological portrait, ... I want to show the joy, amid the suffering from wounds, that the city which is home has been saved, but what comes through is only the suffering. It will be called Knight of Pskov. 1581. I shall tell you the overall concept when we speak.” In all probability the subject of the painting was taken from Russian history and reflects the siege of Pskov in 1581, the central episode in the Livonian War. After his setback under the walls of that city, Stefan Batory, King of Poland and Grand Prince of Lithuania, was forced to enter into negotiations with the Russian Tsar Ivan IV, which ended in the signing of a peace treaty. The moment chosen by the artist is the culmination of the siege, the appearance of the Mother of God to