Ridge of Everest 1924

Nicholas Roerich made this painting of the Ridge of Everest with what looks like tempera or maybe thin oils. It’s this layering of cool blues, from cobalt to cerulean, that really makes it shimmer, like the crisp air of high altitudes. I love how he’s built up the mountains with these faceted planes, like a cubist landscape but totally his own thing. Look at that bold stroke of dark blue defining the ridge in the foreground. It's so decisive, yet the way it bleeds slightly into the white around it gives it this ethereal quality, as though the mountains are both solid and dreamlike. It reminds me of early Marsden Hartley, the way he flattened space with those broad planes of color. Roerich’s work has this almost mystical quality. It's like he’s not just painting mountains but capturing some kind of spiritual essence, a feeling that art is more about possibility than answers.