Boundary of sword (study) 1933

Nicholas Roerich painted this landscape, Boundary of Sword (study), with tempera. Looking at this work, I can see a series of light-blue mountains rolling back into space under a gold sky. There is also a sword image added to the mountains. I like to think that Roerich was thinking a lot about the relationship between landscape and belonging. He probably mixed colors right on the surface of the painting itself to give a layered feeling. It also looks like he was using a dry brush on the mountain shapes – I can imagine him building the forms slowly over time. When I look at the sword, it's hard not to see it as a symbol. I'm curious what he was trying to signal by adding it to the landscape. We can never know what's inside the artist’s head, but we can follow along and add our thoughts to theirs. Roerich is in conversation with other painters who explore the symbolic and expressive possibilities of color and form.