Important Notice

Nicholas Roerich’s career as a writer, theosophist, and prolific artist spanned three continents, two world wars, and a repertoire of paintings that firmly cemented his position in the canon of world art. From his early years in his native Imperial Russia to his final spiritually focussed days in the Himalayas, Roerich was a formidable figure in the world of philosophy and art. His contribution to Indian art, in particular, was so great that he... Nicholas Roerich’s career as a writer, theosophist, and prolific artist spanned three continents, two world wars, and a repertoire of paintings that firmly cemented his position in the canon of world art. From his early years in his native Imperial Russia to his final spiritually focussed days in the Himalayas, Roerich was a formidable figure in the world of philosophy and art. His contribution to Indian art, in particular, was so great that he is the only artist of foreign origin whose works have been declared national art treasures. It is also what prompted noted art scholar O C Gangoly to praise him as “the wizard of eastern landscapes.”

Born Nicholas Konstantinovich Roerich on 9 October 1874 in St. Petersburg, Russia, Roerich was raised in an upper middle-class family that was very well connected with influential people in Russia’s vibrant art and cultural scene. He developed an interest in archaeology and prehistoric artefacts, and showed a propensity for drawing at a young age. While he wished to pursue a career as an artist, his father, a lawyer, did not consider that to be an appropriate profession. Eventually reaching a compromise, Roerich enrolled simultaneously at the Academy of Art, and at St. Petersburg University to study law.

By the first two decades of the 20th century, Roerich had immersed himself in the music, arts and theatrical spaces of Russia, and thereby established himself as an eminent artist not just in the country, but also in parts of Europe. At this time, a combination of factors led the Roerichs, which included his wife Helena, and two sons George and Svetoslav, to leave the country. With Roerich’s deteriorating health, and the dangerous political atmosphere in the years preceding the Russian Revolution of 1917 and World War I, the Roerichs set for India.

Arriving in Bombay (now Mumbai), in December 1923, the artist and his family set upon a tour of India’s historic sites and cultural centres and met with several artists, writers, scholars and scientists including the Tagores and Nandalal Bose. The family continued on an expedition across Central Asia, covering Chinese Turkestan, Altai, Mongolia and Tibet for the next five years. The Roerichs eventually returned to India in 1928 and settled in the Kullu Valley in the Himalayan foothills.

For the first decade and half of his career, Roerich drew from his native Russia and its ancient past for his paintings. Later, the diverse terrains he encountered in Europe and Asia were to emerge as the dominant subjects in his works. “Several factors - including a great love for archaeology, strong feelings about the relationship between humankind and the environment, and a deep interest in mysticism and Asian philosophy - caused him to abandon his early programme of faithfully rendering scenes from Russia’s early history.” (John McCannon, “In search of primeval Russia: stylistic evolution in the landscapes of Nicholas Roerich, 1897 1914,” Ecumene, Vol. 7, No. 3, July 2000, p. 271, online)

As evident in the present lot, Roerich’s depictions of the natural world are particularly celebrated for their otherworldly quality and exceptional use of colour. “Roerich has enormous power and force, yet without ever ‘forcing.’ I do not know of a painter who can get such effects as he gets in color. His drawing has the same remarkable power and breadth, and is intellectual as well as emotional. His painting may be described as at once scholarly, scientific and fearless; added to this there is the poetry of a mystic who is a worshipper of Nature, a Walt Whitman in painting, in a sense. He draws from sky, sea and land those unseen forces of Fatalism and Destiny which are found in Shakespeare. His use of materials is that of a master craftsman, especially where tempera and pastel are used together.” (“Nicholas K. Roerich,” The American Magazine of Art, Vol. 12, No. 6, June 1921, p. 198)

Made with tempera and gouache, the present lot is also indicative of Roerich’s great accomplishment with tempera as a medium. While he began painting primarily with oil colours, he worked almost exclusively with pastels and tempera from 1904. “Part of this was due to Roerich’s efforts to attain new effects in his work, but some of it stemmed from his unhappiness with oils themselves.” (McCannon, p. 280) Tempera, the medium used in the present lot, was particularly suited for his needs. “Tempera is unmatched by oils,’ he wrote; ‘Paint is fated to change - better to let paintings become dreams, rather than old, black boots.” (Artist quoted in McCannon, p. 280)

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