Nanda Devi 1944

This is Nicholas Roerich’s pastel drawing, Nanda Devi. It’s all soft blues and purples, but the mountain range commands a powerful presence. I imagine Roerich standing before this vista, his hand moving across the page, trying to capture the sheer scale and spiritual weight of those peaks. Did he feel small and insignificant, or connected to something vast and eternal? The way the pastel is applied—thinly in some areas, built up in others—gives the mountains a textured, almost shimmering quality. Look at the lines tracing the contours of the snow; they're not just describing form, they're conveying the chill of the air, the way light glances off the ice. It’s really interesting to see how Roerich used simple materials to evoke such grandeur. Painters have always looked to nature for inspiration, trying to distill the essence of a place, a feeling. In this drawing, Roerich is in conversation with centuries of landscape artists, each adding their unique perspective to the ongoing dialogue.