Shchegolikha 1912

Nicholas Roerich drew ‘Shchegolikha’ with ink on paper. This drawing feels like a record of another world. The flowing ink suggests a sense of movement; the artist's hand must have danced across the paper! You can almost feel the artist's breath as they created the character's intricate costume. I wonder what Roerich was thinking as he conjured up this image, in all its strange detail? What tales did he wish to tell? The figure shimmers like a mirage – her identity is never fully resolved. Roerich, like other Symbolists, was deeply invested in the poetics of dreams. He knew that images work on our minds precisely because they are never fully explained. That's why art continues to fascinate across generations. We stand in front of images like this and wonder. We see the conversation artists have been having with one another for centuries.