Himalayas 1944

Nicholas Roerich made this painting of the Himalayas, we don't know exactly when, but it looks like it was made with pastel on board. The way the marks are laid down, it looks like Roerich was really thinking about the physicality of the materials in his process. There’s a kind of directness that I find appealing, it’s like he's using the pastel almost sculpturally. Look at how the strokes build up the form of the mountains, the way the pinkish highlights catch the light, and the cool shadows give volume to the peaks. It feels like the mountains are breathing. Then there's the sky: a calm, even blue which contrasts with the more worked surface of the mountains. I am reminded of the American modernist painter, Marsden Hartley, who shared Roerich’s love of landscape and his simplified, almost iconic, way of representing nature. Ultimately, like all art, this painting leaves space for the viewer to bring their own feelings. There's no one "right" way to see it.