The oldest, the wisest 1944

Nicholas Roerich made this tempera on cardboard, titled 'The oldest, the wisest'. What strikes me is how Roerich reduces his palette to almost a childish simplicity. He’s letting the paint describe the scene in the most economic way. There’s a beautiful flatness here – the surface of the cardboard almost seems to repel the paint. In the treatment of the landscape we can see the sky pressing down, with the hills rendered in blocks of colour, while the figure stands as an isolated form against this backdrop. If you look closely at the figure you can see a wonderful graphic quality in the repeated motifs and outlines, which feel like they are floating on the surface, an addition to the scene rather than a part of it. It reminds me a little of Gustov Klimt in this respect, in the way the figures are at once integrated and estranged from the landscape. Both artists understood painting as an ongoing exchange of ideas across time, embracing ambiguity and multiple interpretations.