A steep snow slope 1924

Nicholas Roerich made "A Steep Snow Slope" with what looks like tempera or watercolor. See how the paint is washed in layers, bleeding at the edges? That feels like a quick, intuitive process, like he's trying to capture a fleeting moment. The peaks are these jagged, almost violent, shapes emerging from a hazy ground. The color is muted, dusky purples and grays, with those stark white lines of snow. It's the physicality of the paint, thin and watery, that gives the piece its emotional tone. It’s melancholic, a little sad. Look at the dark blue and black mountain that dominates the foreground on the right. It's solid and imposing, but it's also kind of dissolving into the atmosphere. That tension between solidity and dissolution is what makes the piece so compelling. Roerich’s landscapes remind me of Marsden Hartley’s Mount Katahdin paintings: both artists using simplified forms and limited palettes to convey the sublime power of nature. It's like Roerich is reminding us that art is always a conversation, a way of seeing and feeling that gets passed down from one artist to another.