The Gates of Tmutarakan 1919

Nicholas Roerich made this painting of the Gates of Tmutarakan, we don't know exactly when, and it feels like he was working from memory, or a dream. The colour palette is earthy and bold, with reds, greens, yellows, and blacks shaping this imagined landscape. The paint looks like it's been put on thinly, washy almost, allowing the surface underneath to peek through, and it gives it a kind of immediacy. The marks are direct, not fussed over. Look at the way Roerich renders the hills in the foreground with those broad, sweeping strokes of colour, it’s so simple, but so effective. He's not trying to trick us into thinking these are real hills, but instead using colour and line to evoke a feeling of place, almost stage like in its construction. Roerich's paintings often deal with spiritual themes and remote landscapes, like Marsden Hartley, another painter with a mystical bent, who created his own versions of the American landscape from memory. Roerich reminds us that painting isn't about capturing reality, but about creating new ways of seeing and experiencing the world.