Through pattern sheets, book covers and interior sketches, Jūlijs Madernieks brought a firm geometric ornament into Latvian art – not only for decorating salons, but also for teaching. On 19 July 1955 he died in Riga, aged 85, and was buried in the Forest Cemetery. Madernieks was a master of applied art, a graphic artist, painter, teacher and critic; among the students in his drawing and painting studio, opened in 1904, were Romans Suta and Niklāvs Strunke.

In the early 20th century, Latvian artists were looking for a modern form that could speak the language of European art while remaining recognisably local. Madernieks’s ornament linked Art Nouveau and later Art Deco solutions with the study of Latvian textile patterns, while his teaching influenced the next generation of modernists.