Important Notice

“Where can one have such joy as when the sun is upon the Himalayas, when the blue is more intense than sapphires, when from the far distance, the glaciers glitter as incomparable gems!”
- NICHOLAS ROERICH

Though Nicholas Roerich moved to India with his family at the end of 1923, his fascination for the country began much earlier, thanks to an old family painting of a majestic mountain that he admired greatly. He would later... “Where can one have such joy as when the sun is upon the Himalayas, when the blue is more intense than sapphires, when from the far distance, the glaciers glitter as incomparable gems!”
- NICHOLAS ROERICH

Though Nicholas Roerich moved to India with his family at the end of 1923, his fascination for the country began much earlier, thanks to an old family painting of a majestic mountain that he admired greatly. He would later discover it to be the famous Kanchenjunga - a mountain that he would later trek and be inspired to paint. Quoting from the Chinese book, Wei Tsang T'u-Shih, in his diary in 1924, he writes, "The luster of the mountain peaks is equal unto emerald. Verily the beauty and perfection of all objects make this place incomparable." (Nicholas Roerich, Altai-Himalaya: A Travel Diary, Part I India, New York: Nicholas Roerich Museum, online)

Roerich first established himself as an eminent artist in his homeland Russia and parts of Europe before relocating to India. After travelling and taking part in expeditions across India and Central Asia - including Chinese Turkestan, Altai, Mongolia, and Tibet - Roerich, with his family, eventually returned to India in 1928 and settled in the Kullu Valley in the Himalayan foothills. In the years that followed, the artist created a series of landscapes, such as the present lot, that skilfully depicted the Himalayan mountains in their glorious form and in a myriad of tones and hues.

Roerich's fascination with the Himalayas led to the development of a new style of painting - one that was marked by a richness of colour, forcefulness of line, and freshness of perspective. "No artist has ever made them [the Himalayas] an object of their key artistic designs... He painted them easily and plainly, the way Johann Sebastian Bach probably composed his preludes and fugues. Indeed, the polyphonic arrangement of his melodious strokes, which seemed to be exceeding the bounds of pictures, the silhouettes of the ridges disappearing in the sky and in the depths of a painting, together with eye-catching infinity and the colourful palette of the heavens, produced a melodious impression which was very close to that of the music of the spheres." (Nicholas Roerich Vol. 1, Samara: Agni Publishing House; Moscow: Fine Arts Academy Gallery; Zürich: Kunstberatun, 2008, p. 601)

For Roerich, India was much more than a travel destination - as is evident from the 80 canvases produced during this period. These works, including the present lot, are deeply informed by a sense of spiritual exploration. In many of the paintings from this time, "we can see philosophical concepts and ideas giving birth to visual images, and the splendor of Northern India providing the physical setting." (Nicholas Roerich Museum, online) His paintings capture not only the physical magnificence and ethereal atmosphere, but also evoke the spirit of the Himalayas, as seen in the present lot. They are a symbolic reflection of his own spiritual journey and the strength of character he acquired, facing the physical challenges of his arduous expeditions.

Depicting the glorious subtleties reflected in the myriad tones and hues of the Himalayan landscape, the present lot is a masterful study of light and shadow, with the artist carefully outlining every topographical detail. Through the rocky ridges and snowy dunes of this composition, the artist invites the viewer to experience this soothing landscape as he would have at the time. "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)

Himalayan Snows is composed of a predominantly blue palette, with Roerich managing to beautifully capture the way the sun paints certain facets of the icy mountains in bright light, while enshrouding its neighbouring terrain in nuanced degrees of darkness. This expert execution of the interplay between light and shadow, and the faithful representation of his beloved subject earned Roerich the honoured title of the "Master of Mountains".

Painted in Kullu in 1932, the present lot was then sent to the Roerich Museum in New York. It was then presented to Dr Charles Fleischer who, at the time, was the Vice President of the Society of Friends of Roerich Museum in New York. This has been verified by Gvido Trepša, Director of the Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York.

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