Keeper of Cuple 1930

Nicholas Roerich made ‘Keeper of Cuple’ using thin, washy paints, a very limited palette of blues, purples, and earth tones. I can almost see him out there, squinting in the cold, dabbing and pushing the paint around. What did he think these stones represented? He paints the sky as a thin wash of colour. These broad flat areas of colour are not quite representational, yet they still speak to the essence of what he’s seeing. The artist has used horizontal lines to convey a seemingly endless landscape, marked by upright stones or sculptures. The main figure casts a huge shadow. Is this a figure of authority? How does it relate to the stones? Roerich often painted landscapes with spiritual or symbolic significance, linking the natural world with inner states of being. Maybe that’s what he was doing here. He and other painters are always trying to have a conversation across time. It’s like we’re forever bouncing ideas and images off each other.