Banner of the Future 1925

Nicholas Roerich made "Banner of the Future" with tempera on canvas sometime during his career. The simplified forms and flattened perspective really give this landscape an otherworldly feel. The mountains, sky, and earth are all rendered in these big, geometric planes of colour. Roerich's colours are so evocative. He paints the scene using a muted palette of blues, browns, and purples, which gives the landscape a sense of quiet strength and stillness. The figures clustered around the banner introduce a human element to the picture, while still allowing the landscape to dominate. The figures are simple in design and, like the landscape, are made up of blocks of earthy colours. They almost blend into the environment. The effect of this piece reminds me a bit of Gauguin's landscapes, they both have this flattened, dreamlike quality to them. Roerich’s art, much like Gauguin’s, is really about embracing art’s potential for ambiguity.