Monhegan (study) 1922

Nicholas Roerich made this drawing, Monhegan (study), with graphite on paper. You can feel the artist’s hand moving across the page, trying to capture the rockface in a web of finely rendered lines. The tonal variations are subtle but effective, creating a sense of depth and shadow. I can imagine Roerich outside in the landscape with his sketchbook, quickly trying to get the forms down on paper. I wonder what it would have been like to stand there with him. Was the sun in his eyes? Was he fighting against the wind? There’s a real immediacy to this work. You can see him grappling with the problem of how to represent this rugged, complex form. It reminds me of some of Cezanne’s landscape drawings where he is feeling out the subject, trying to find the underlying structure of the landscape. Painting is a form of embodied expression. By making this drawing, Roerich is in conversation with all the artists who have come before him, trying to make sense of the world.