Nicolai Tyrsa was born in 1887 in Aralykh village of Erivan province (nowadays Aralyk, Turkey) in a family of a Cossack’s array officer. During 1905-1909 Tyrsa studied at the Architectural Department at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Petersburg. From 1906 to 1910 he attended lessons with Bakst L. at school of Zvantzeva E. N. When Tyrsa was young he was involved in studying the Old Russian art during several years. He reproduced wall-paintings and took part in its restoration. Also, he was engaged in decorative paintings of the town-houses in Petersburg. In 1914, the artist presented his brilliant works with nude models and it was the first time when critics paid attention at him. Besides, the artist created landscapes, still-lives and interior scenes. From 1918 to 1922 Tyrsa had been teaching at the Academy of Arts in Petrograd and during 1924 – 1942 at the Institute of the Civil Engineers in Leningrad. The artist was one of the founders of the Soviet School for children’s books illustrations. Since 1921 he focused on the book graphics. The first his work in this direction was the design of the book “Comedy about Tsar’ Maximilian and His Indocile Son Adolf”. Nicolai Tyrsa created illustrations for such books as “The Palace Siege” by V. Kaverin, “Republic ShKID” by G. Belyh and L. Panteleev, “The Snow Book” by V.V. Bianka, “The Military Horses” by N.S. Tikhonov, and “The Childhood” by M.Gorky. In 1940-41, Tyrsa was involved in design of glass-wares (decanters, glasses, and vases) working with V. I. Mukhina in the plant development shop specialized in production of mirrors in Leningrad. On January 29, 1942 the sick artist had been evacuated from the blockade Leningrad to Vologda where he died on February, 10.