Sunset rider 1918

Nicholas Roerich made this landscape, Sunset Rider, with paint, probably oil or tempera. Look at how the paint seems dragged across the surface, especially in the sky. There’s not a lot of blending, which gives the forms a feeling of simplicity, almost like a woodcut. I like how the clouds look like waves about to crest, and that yellow band feels like a premonition of light to come. The mountains are built up from layers of blue, each one a little darker than the last. It reminds me of the way some abstract painters build space, not through perspective, but by stacking up color. See that raw canvas peeking through at the bottom? The light ground really sets off those blues, making them feel both weighty and kind of dreamy. It's a bold choice, leaving the ground raw like that. Roerich's paintings remind me a bit of Arthur Dove's landscapes, but with a more mystical bent. Both artists seemed to be after something beyond the visible world, something hovering just out of reach.