Born in Yaroslavl in the family of the famous historian, Museum worker, collector of paintings and old porcelain Vasiliy A. Pertseva /1865-1940/. Under the influence of his father, who in 1919 became the first curator of the Art gallery (now the Yaroslavl art Museum), and from 1922 head of the Museum of old Russian art, Nikolai from his youth showed an interest in art and culture, he studied painting and drawing.
The revolution of 1917 forced from an early age to start working. After finishing the Yaroslavl real school, he worked in rabkrin, described the nationalized collections of icons from the churches, valuable items from estates, etc. in Parallel, he studied at Yaroslavl University, faculty of social Sciences, where he read a course of lectures on old Russian art of A. I. Anisimov.
Formation of the creative person N. Pertseva connected with the events of artistic life of the city post-revolutionary decades. From 1924 he worked in the museums of Yaroslavl and the Yaroslavl branch of HCHRM, where practical work with N. G By Pervukhin, I. A. Tikhomirov, A. I. Anisimov, N. And.Pagenum gained experience of the Museum worker and restorer. A big role, according to pepper, in his professional destiny played a creative atmosphere and the people with whom he worked. In those years a young restorer took part in the removal of the frescoes from the walls of churches (marked for destruction), their preservation and transfer to Museum collections, there grew up a deep interest in Museum activities. He painted landscapes, portraits and still lifes, created graphic compositions, was a member and participant of exhibitions of the Yaroslavl branch of AHRR (1925-26), the Yaroslavl Society of fine arts(19028-29), of the Corporation of painters of the city of Yaroslavl(1929). In connection with the closing of the restoration workshops in October 1930, the Peppers went to work in the Yaroslavl branch of the Ivanovo regional Museum, and in 1931 he moved to Leningrad.
With 1931по 1935 he continued his work at the State Russian Museum (GRM) as a researcher in the Department of applied art and the sector of ancient art. From 1935 to 1937 he was a senior inspector of the office of the Commissioner of the Committee of the Central Executive Committee, and since November 1937 - a senior artist and art restorer at the plant Lenisa, where he studied restoration of paintings in the monuments of Leningrad and its suburbs. 1941 - drafted into military service in the Moscow military district. After world war II returned to the work of the restorer. After demobilization from 1945 to 1952 was head of the team of restorers from Leningrad special scientific restoration workshops, to revive murals in the buildings of the Hermitage, the Russian Museum, St. Isaac's Cathedral etc.
The crackdown on the Leningrad intelligentsia in the 1950s pepper was forced to return to Yaroslavl. Here he took part in the work of strengthening the frescoes and icons of the Spaso-Priobrazhensky Cathedral, churches of St. John the Baptist in Tolchkovo, of the Prophet Elijah etc. In 1954 he was invited again in the state where it revives workshop of ancient art. Pepper resumed the expeditions on collection of monuments, circling Leningrad, Novgorod region, etc., engaged in the building and erection of monuments, their study, taught the restoration of the young restorers of what is called "hand in hand". Assisted the museums of Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Petrozavodsk, Novgorod and other museums in the preservation, popolni and exhibiting collections of ancient art. All these years, Pepper continued to work as a painter. He was a member of the Leningrad branch of Union of artists (loskh) until 1956, he exhibited his works at the exhibitions of Leningrad artists. Pertseva solo exhibitions took place in Yaroslavl in 1976, 1993, 2007 and approximately ten exhibitions in the period 1970-1990. in other cities of Russia. Paintings and graphic works are kept in state Russian Museum, in the museums of Vologda, Novgorod, etc., in the collection of AHM presents more than one hundred works. From 1982 are held scientific readings dedicated to the memory of N. In.Pertseva in cities where he creatively worked and made a significant contribution to the restoration and preservation of monuments of culture of Leningrad, Petersburg (1982, 2001), Vologda (1987), Archangel(1990), Petrozavodsk (1998), St. Petersburg (2001).