Saint Nicholas (Nicola Mozhaisky) 1920

Nicholas Roerich made this painting of Saint Nicholas, possibly sometime in the early 20th century, with what looks like tempera on board. Roerich is interested in something beyond a likeness. It feels like the painting is a process of remembering, almost like a dream. There's something about the way Roerich handles paint, it’s very flat and matter-of-fact. The surface is muted, and the colours are somehow both bold and subdued. The shapes are not meticulously defined. Instead, Roerich relies on simplified contours. See the way the mountains are rendered, those blues and reds – it's like he's after a distilled essence of "mountainness." The white river cuts through the landscape, dividing it in a forceful gesture. That figure of Saint Nicholas, he's just standing there, a beacon of calm in the midst of it all. It makes me think of Marsden Hartley. Both artists are interested in using their art as a conversation with history. With these shapes and these colours, he is opening up the possibility of multiple interpretations, rather than closing them down with certainty.