Morocco 1912

Nicholas Roerich painted this landscape, Morocco, with what looks like tempera or maybe gouache, building the image with soft, chalky marks. What I find so compelling about Roerich’s work is how he coaxes such luminosity and depth from these muted tones, like he's painting with light itself. The surface is flat, and the paint sits on top, yet within that very particular constraint, there's a lot of atmosphere. The colors, orange, violet, peach, and blue, blend into each other with almost no hard edges. Look at how those small, darker blue bushes pepper the foreground, drawing your eye into the scene. It makes me think of the work of Milton Avery, where simple forms and color create a world all their own, a space that invites contemplation and a kind of quiet wonder. There’s a dreamlike quality to this piece, as if Roerich is painting not just a place, but a feeling. It’s less about what you see, and more about how it makes you feel.