Sanctuaries and Citadels 1925

Nicholas Roerich made 'Sanctuaries and Citadels' with paint on canvas, and it feels like he built it up stroke by stroke. There's this ochre light and warm, dusty palette that just pulls you in. It’s like you can feel the sun beating down on this ancient mountainside city. I imagine Roerich standing there, maybe squinting a little, trying to capture the monumental feeling of this place. What's the structure like? Is it sturdy? Are the buildings huddled together for safety, or reaching for the sky? I bet the painting went through a million changes before it got here. That yellowy light on the horizon, the way it hits the buildings just so, it's almost dreamlike. There’s a little mark-making happening in the foreground, some short brushstrokes, little dashes of earth tones. It's like the painting is breathing. Roerich was part of a whole lineage of landscape painters trying to express something profound about our place in the world. It makes me think about how we’re all talking to each other across time, artists inspiring artists, one brushstroke at a time.