Animal life has always been closely intertwined with human life, acting as a rich source of cultural symbols and material goods, influencing economics, social relations and art. Animals therefore have always been popular subjects for artists, who have depicted them either as part of the world around them or as major characters. At the same time, the ways in which animals and their relationships with humans are depicted can change, influencing the shaping of aesthetics. Accordingly, art as a research tool allows to highlight and explore the multifaceted relationships between people, nature, technology and society. The author focusses on the drawings and engravings on the walrus tusks made by master Roshilin in the first half of the 20th century. Being the head of the Dezhnev walrus ivory carving workshop, Roshilin set the tone for the design of Chukchi and Asian Eskimo art, which later became a classic one. In the first decades of the 20th century, when Roshilin was fulfilling private orders, the principles of his “cruel aesthetics” were most vividly manifested. His aesthetics correlates with the realities of lives of Chukchee and Asian Eskimo sea hunters and reindeer herders. Thus, the attitude to animals was far from contemplative admiration. First of all, it was an active, practical attitude to the main object of hunter’s efforts, attitude to the main source of his life. With the opening of state walrus ivory carving workshops and the formation of artels, the subjects were somewhat “censored” and became less naturalistic. The paper focusses the themes and subjects of the pictures that master Roshilin worked on, as well as the peculiarities of his artistic language. A variety of attributed works by Roshilin make it possible to analyze the master’s handwriting, record changes of the images and talk about the roots of the corresponding transformations.