Himalayas 1947

Nicholas Roerich painted these Himalayas, we're not sure exactly when, using tempera on cardboard. Look at how he's layering colour – pinks and mauves and mustards – it feels like he's feeling his way through the image as much as depicting a place. There’s something so dreamy and otherworldly about this picture. It’s not just a landscape; it’s like a landscape of the mind. The paint is thin, almost translucent, giving it a luminous quality, like you’re seeing the mountains through a veil. Check out the summit, the way he’s built it up with these short, choppy strokes. It reminds me of Cezanne, but with a mystical twist. Roerich was super into the spiritual, and you can see that here. It's like he’s trying to capture something beyond the physical, something ethereal. It's open to interpretation, and maybe that's the point.