Nikolai Konstantinovich Roerich - a famous Russian artist. Born on October 9, 1874. He died at the age of 73 on December 13, 1947.
During his creative life he wrote more than seven thousand paintings, which are included in the world collection of fine art.
Friends of the family, a gymnastics course, university education and the Academy of Arts, as components of success, as bricks at the base of the foundation, were formed to develop this powerful man in spirit. Our article will talk about 10 Roerich's most famous paintings with original titles and photos of the work.
10. The Himalayas
Pink mountains. The painting was painted in 1933. Currently stored in the collection of the New York Museum of Nicholas Roerich. In total, the artist painted up to two thousand paintings dedicated to the Himalayas.
The artist’s image of mountains comes from India, where mountains are an integral part of the landscape of this original country.
But for a mature artist, the Himalayas are not the highest mountain system in the world, powerful glaciers are not sliding, not massive snow hills.
Mountains are a living organism that has its own special mood.. The variability of which the viewer feels due to fluctuations in shades. Where the tenderness of pink color, love, affection is in harmony with the contrasts of white and blue and blue black.
From experiencing feelings of peace, security, relaxation to despair. Mountains like a frozen eternity.
But if you want to know what is behind them, then you need to go through them. Maybe really behind them is the fabulous country of Shambhala, where there is no place for anxiety and sorrow.
9. Alexander Nevsky
The real picture was painted in 1942 and entered into the heroic cycle of the artist, along with such works as "Yaroslav", "Boris and Gleb", "Victory" and others.
The historic event that inspired Roerich to create this canvas was the date - the 700th anniversary of the victory of the forces of Kievan Rus over the Livonian Order. The great battle on Lake Peipsi or the “Battle of the Ice”.
12 thousand Russian soldiers and 17 thousand opponents fell on the battlefield, in which the foot army defeated the heavy cavalry.
In the foreground of the picture, the viewer sees the commander. His horse is walking carefully. Among the blood-stained ice lie the lifeless bodies of people, horses.
Behind the leader is his retinue, his close friends. Faces of mournful, hunched backs from the severity of the experienced and grief.
They conquered Kievan Rus from the invaders. The sky is blazing. The bloody snow melts, taking the feat of arms of thousands and thousands of dedicated people into history.
8. Mother of the World
A painting was painted in 1924. It is stored in the Museum of Nicholas Roerich in New York.
The canvas is made in blue, blue, purple, gold shades. It is impossible to take your eyes off him.
The picture is "addictive", makes you think about what is in front of your eyes. It is an amazing phenomenon that the longer you look at it, the more space expands in it. There is a feeling of infinity.
In the foreground, a woman sits on the throne in front of the viewer. The royal person. This is an image of a powerful, life-giving force, cosmic in scale and capacity - Feminine Energy.
Those who develop it in themselves become more susceptible to the beautiful, to love, to the comprehension of eternal truths and values.
Those who destroy it, in fact, deprive themselves of the source of universal recharge, universal reason, intuition.
It is noteworthy that the woman's face is half closed. Here you can mentally finish the facial features hidden by the veil.
Art historians say that the hidden part is something that remains to be passed, experienced. Understand. The open part of the face symbolizes the already achieved heights, which one must have the courage to follow.
7. Idols
Behind a wooden palisade, hung with animal skulls, idols stand and rise above the height of a human, laden with boulders.
In those days, there were no high-rise buildings, and the giants are perceived as creatures of an unknown metropolis.
The picture is true reflects the influence of pagan gods on human life. To them, to idols, people came to the temples, where they prayed for the coming and tomorrow, sacrificed animals.
As a traveler, Nicholas Roerich visited the excavation site personally. The painting was created in 1901.
6. Teacher’s order
The Testament of the Master. The canvas was painted in 1947. In front of the viewer, high in the Himalayas, is a guru. He is focused.
In the sky next to a white eagle, which reads information from the mouth of a person. From the bird comes solemn reverence and worship. How else. Being a mediator between Heaven and Earth, the bird accumulates the creative thoughts of the guru and, as a powerful charge of energy, transfers it from the mountain peaks to people.
White plumage of an eagle symbolizes the purity of the teacher’s thoughts. Who is this guru? Maybe the artist himself, who creates such a masterpiece in the year of death.
5. Overseas guests
The painting was painted in 1901. In front of the viewer, on the dark blue calm water, two rooks of Rusichs move. Merchants are floating on them. The shores are deserted. Only in the distance is a small village visible.
The artist carefully paints both people's clothes and the decoration of ships. On the deck are peacekeepers. They move to the places of settlement of the Slavs.
In 1899, Nicholas Roerich took a trip to Novgorod by water. The paintings that excited him along the way inspired the artist to create this canvas. The emperor Nicholas II praised the painting and purchased it from the artist.
4. St. Sergius of Radonezh
The painting was painted in 1932. Located in the State Tretyakov Gallery. According to the memoirs of the entourage of Nicholas Roerich, the life of Sergius of Radonezh has always interested the artist and caused a desire to reflect this image on canvas.
After the ascetic's death, there were no records left, only the memories of his contemporaries. Only his prayer feat during the battle with Mamai (Battle of Kulikovo) is forced to bow to this man who raised the faith of soldiers to fight half a century of slavery.
In the foreground of the picture depicts Sergius. Majestically beautiful and kind. In his hands is a symbol of the human soul - the temple of God. It is warm and comfortable for her to be in the hands of the Rev.
Artist worships this man and loves him. “Our Rev. Father Sergius, pray to God for us” - this is how the words of prayer sound and they will be heard.
3. Saints Gleb and Boris
The painting was painted in 1942. Currently stored in the State Russian Museum of St. Petersburg.
The painting depicts Russian saints who are moving on a boat towards the Russian shores in order to notify the warriors of Kievan Rus about the victory they will gain over the Swedes.
Warriors of Light and Spirit are solemn. Around them is a soft glow of golden yellow, green colors. So inconspicuous that the viewer sees a continuous mountain range behind them.
The Russian princes killed in the struggle for the throne, in the guise of saints, comprise the Spiritual Brotherhood, which helps the Russians in all the battlefields where they defend their Fatherland.
2. Yaroslav the Wise
Yaroslav the Wise - Grand Duke of Kiev. Being the son of the Grand Duke Vladimir, the baptist of Russia, he not only preserved the work of his father, but also increased his success.
Pursuing the enlightenment of his people, he achieved not only that his people learned to read, but also began to write books. The codes of his working laws not only brought order to the state, but also increased the authority of Russia in Europe.
The canvas depicts Prince Vladimir. He works. Outside the windows are the domes of the temple as a symbol of God present in all the deeds of this great man. Bright, stellar fate of Yaroslav, and on the canvas he looks significantly.
His image is made using red, purple, pink flowers. As a symbol of holiness, religious passion, religious self-denial, moderation.
The man depicted on the canvas is strict and academic, seasoned. He does not have time to scatter his talents, as there is still much to do.
1. Tangla
Song of Shambhala. In China, in the Tibetan plateau, there are mountain ranges, united by the common name Tangla. Indescribable beauty has been preserved here, in which dome-shaped peaks, flat slopes, and the widest flat-bottomed pits are combined. The artist captured this divine phenomenon in ten canvases.
Against the background of chains of snow-capped peaks, the colors of the sky, combined with its cosmic vastness, are fantastically reflected.
According to legend, it is in these parts of the country of Shambhala, in which the worlds converge: earthly and heavenly. Material and spiritual. And the people living in this country, the “Mahatmas," are carriers of incredible knowledge in importance.
The painting was painted in 1943. It is located in the State Museum of the East. If you move a little further away from it, you will have the impression that the landscape is spread out, as it were, outside the window of your own house.