Basgo 1932

Nicholas Roerich’s ‘Basgo’ is a landscape rendered with tempera on canvas. Look at those angular peaks and flattened forms basking in the sunset, or maybe it's the sunrise. You can almost feel the dry heat radiating off those canyon walls. Roerich’s landscapes tap into something elemental. I can imagine him standing before the vista with his paints, trying to capture not just what he saw, but what he felt. Roerich was really into the spiritual dimensions of landscape, channeling a deep connection to nature and the cosmos. There's a theatricality to the composition—a stage set for something epic, like a Wagnerian opera. And those colors, ochre, and burnt umber contrasted against the turquoise sky feel so specific to a time and place, yet timeless. I can see echoes of Symbolism and Art Nouveau in his work, but Roerich makes it all his own. He was part of an artistic conversation that stretches back centuries, and each artist adds their own voice to the chorus.