Order of Rigden Jyepo 1927

Nicholas Roerich made this painting, Order of Rigden Jyepo, with oil on canvas. Look at those mountains, the blues and whites blending like a dream! The way the clouds curl around the peaks—you can almost feel the chill. And then, this figure emerging from the rocks, all reds and pinks. Imagine Roerich, layering paint, trying to capture that light, that sense of the mystical hidden in plain sight. He probably felt like he was climbing those very mountains, each brushstroke a step. I feel like he’s trying to show us that the act of painting is like finding a hidden temple. He’s searching for something, and maybe he found it. Maybe painting is a form of embodied expression which embraces ambiguity, and that allows for so many different readings of the work. It reminds you that painting isn't just about what you see, but about feeling, searching, and the conversations artists have with each other across time.