Fairest City - the anger for enemies 1914

Nicholas Roerich made this striking, small square painting, with its thin paint application, at an unknown date. Looking at it, I can imagine Roerich, brush in hand, layering fiery reds and oranges to create these almost menacing flames that lick the base of the ‘fairest city.’ You can see two demons watching the scene from above, a fascinating contrast with the architectural rendering of the city itself. I'm wondering what he was thinking when he put the two together. The city is painted in a precise way, like a Byzantine miniature. I wonder if he was working from a memory of architecture he admired, like a city built on foundations of idealism. The overall composition is, for me, a powerful reminder of how artists across time engage in conversations, borrowing and transforming ideas. Roerich would have looked at the works of artists such as Hieronymus Bosch and William Blake. ‘Fairest City’ is a testament to the continuous exchange of visual language and artistic expression, reminding us that art-making is an ongoing process of interpreting, responding, and reimagining the world around us.