Study of skull 1894

Nicholas Roerich painted this study of a skull, sometime in his career, with oil on canvas. There's an honesty to this work. Roerich doesn't appear to have disguised the labor, or the speed with which the painting was made. The brushstrokes are visible, and the paint application is rather economic. It is a study, not a highly-finished painting. We see the materiality of the oil paint: its viscosity, and how it catches the light differently according to the thickness of each layer. Roerich, trained in law and art, worked across disciplines, with interests in archeology, theosophy, and Russian culture. His paintings often have a strong symbolic or spiritual element. What does it mean to see Roerich, with his wide-ranging pursuits, devote time to the relatively conventional practice of painting a skull? Perhaps it’s a reminder that even those with broad intellectual and spiritual horizons must return to the fundamental matter of life and death, a memento mori rendered in humble, earthly materials. We must look to the making and material of the artwork, alongside its wider context, to understand its full meaning.