Ledenets town 1919

Nicholas Roerich made this painting, Ledenets Town, with oil on canvas. It’s a striking composition, mainly yellows and reds. I imagine Roerich layering paint, building up the town piece by piece. There’s a sense of depth. Look at the red towers – they seem almost cartoonish, but they're also monumental. I wonder if he was thinking about Russian folk tales? Maybe he was thinking of the textures of old buildings and tapestries. The whole scene is a bit dreamlike, right? The yellow sky, the red buildings, the figures in the foreground. As a painter, I find it comforting to know that another artist, like Roerich, was trying to capture something similar, but in their own way. It's all a big conversation across time. Painting is an embodied expression, and artists are constantly finding ways to express something that is ultimately inexpressible.