Sketch of mosaic to the monument to Kuinji 1913

Nicholas Roerich made this sketch for a mosaic to the monument to Kuinji, and just look at the jewel-like quality he coaxes from paint! There’s something really special about the way that surface is built up, all those tiny, deliberate marks. It’s like he’s thinking through the process of mosaic making itself. The colours are sumptuous, gold and dark blues, giving the sense of twilight, as though the forms have been excavated from a dark space. It's really interesting when painters take on mosaic. I love how the trunk of the tree is rendered, a reddish-brown core with these lighter, scumbled marks around it. You can almost feel the texture of bark beneath your fingers, and the way the mosaic is formed out of these smaller marks, just like the growth rings of a tree. This reminds me of Klimt, and also the symbolist painters, but with Roerich, there is always something very grounded and human in his work, even as he reaches for the sublime. Ultimately, it is a conversation, each artwork responding to, and building upon, the dialogue of others.