The Rusanov House Museum displays a unique exhibit — a painted pebble with an unusual northern landscape. The pebble was painted by Ilya Vylka. The image on the stone features lilac rocks and a blue bay in the background. The shore that was heated by the polar sun is highlighted with a bright yellow line.

Ilya Vylka was born in Novaya Zemlya. The environment was harsh — the northern nature, the endless long winter with its fierce eastern winds, the heavy dependence of a person on hunting and the isolation from the world. All this was not particularly suitable for the pursuit of fine art. However, through trade and other episodic connections with the outer world, individual objects created by European civilization were brought to the island. They included weapons, tools, utensils, and even books and magazines — something utterly mysterious for the people who had no written language.

Ilya Vylka became interested in fine arts at a very young age. The first artist he saw was the painter Aleksander Borisov, who took part in the Novaya Zemlya expedition of 1896. Borisov, and later other travelers, encouraged the young man in his attempts at drawing, providing paper, paints, and pencils. Vylka got acquainted with the polar traveler Vladimir Rusanov and participated in his expeditions as a guide. This experience was of crucial importance for the young man. Vylka worked as a guide in Rusanov’s expeditions in 1909, 1910 and 1911. The explorer noticed the aspiring artist, appreciated his endowment and was instrumental in making his artworks known to the public.

In 1910, the “Russian North” exhibition was organized in Arkhangelsk and attracted public attention. It included several Novaya Zemlya landscapes by Vylka. Rusanov believed that Vylka needed to study and brought him to Moscow to study under the famous artists Abram Arkhipov and Vasily Perepletchikov, who taught him the basics of professional art. However, their lessons apparently had little influence on Vylka’s original style. It is difficult now to say what his fate might have been if he had been able to stay in Moscow. But one year later, Vylka had to return to Novaya Zemlya to take care of the large family of his deceased brother.

In 1911, while on Novaya Zemlya, Vylka gave his friend Vladimir Rusanov a talisman — a landscape painted on an ordinary pebble.