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Nicholas Roerich - a Master of the Himalayas |
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(1874 – 1947) Nicholas Roerich, painter, archeologist, writer, lawyer and peace builder was born in St. Petersburg, Russia on October 9, 1874. At an early age he showed a talent for a variety of activities including archeology and drawing. At the age of sixteen he wanted to enter the Academy of Art to pursue a career as an artist, but his father insisted he follow his career and become a lawyer. A compromise was reached, and in 1893 Nicholas enrolled simultaneously in the Academy of Art and at St. Petersburg University. The late 1890's saw a blossoming in Russian arts, particularly in St. Petersburg, where the avant-garde was forming groups and alliances, led by the young Sergei Diaghilev, who was ahead of Roerich at law school and was among the first to appreciate his talents as a painter. The young painter was introduced to many of the composers and artists of the time - Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky, and the basso Fyodor Chaliapin. He later designed opera sets for these composers. After finishing university, Roerich met and married Elena, daughter of the architect Shaposhnikov and niece of the composer Mussorgsky. They subsequently had two sons, Svetoslav and George. Roerich won the position of Secretary of the School of the Society for the Encouragement of Art, later becoming its head, the first of many positions that Roerich would occupy as a teacher and spokesman for the arts. The cross-fertilization of the arts that Roerich promoted was evidence of his ability to harmonize, and find correspondences between apparent conflicts or opposites in all areas of life. His talent for synthesis enabled him to correlate the subjective with the objective, the philosophical with the scientific, Eastern wisdom with Western knowledge, and to build bridges of understanding between such apparent contradictions. The Painter and Designer In the summers of 1903 and 1904, the Roerichs set off on an extended tour of forty cities throughout Russia. Roerich's purpose was to contrast the styles and historical context of Russian ancient monuments, churches, city walls, and castles. He found that these had, in many instances, been neglected for centuries. As an archeologist and art historian he was aware of what an important key they were to Russia's cultural history. He determined to draw attention to the situation and somehow arrange to have them protected and preserved, and with this goal in mind painted a series of seventy-five works depicting the structures. The experience of this journey had a lasting effect, for on his return in 1904 Roerich promulgated the plan that he hoped would create protection everywhere for such cultural treasures, a plan consummated thirty-one years later in the Roerich Pact. This kind of thinking was not common in those days, and anticipated the importance that, today, most countries of the world place upon preservation of their cultural heritage. In 1906, Sergei Diaghilev arranged an exhibition of Russian paintings in Paris. These included sixteen works by Nicholas Roerich. In 1909 he presented Chaliapin in Rimsky-Korsakov's "Ivan the Terrible", with costumes and sets designed by Roerich. In the Polovtsian Dances from Borodin's "Prince Igor," also designed by Roerich, and in other ballets, Diaghilev introduced a corps of Russian dancers; that later became famous as the Ballets Russes, which included Pavlova, Fokin, and Nijinsky. Nicholas Roerich not only created the sets, but was the prime mover with Igor Stravinsky, the co-creator of the ballet "Le Sacre du Printemps" ("The Rite of Spring"). In 1915 to 1917 the Roerich family was living in Finland. The revolution was raging in Russia, and returning there would have been dangerous. The following year, he had a painting exhibit in Stockholm and from there the family went to London. Sir Thomas Beecham had invited the artist to design a new production of "Prince Igor" for the Covent Garden Opera. Meanwhile, Roerich accepted an invitation to come to America from the Chicago Art Institute. The tour of the exhibit opened successfully in New York in 1920. In addition to exhibiting over 400 paintings there and in many cities through the United States, Roerich designed the scenery and costumes for productions of "The Snow Maiden" and "Tristan and Isolde" for the Chicago Opera Company. During his travels in America, he painted a series in New Mexico and the Ocean Series in Monhegan, Maine. He responded to the spirit of enterprise he found in America and wrote about the positive influence its developing technology would have on the world. In 1921, in New York, he founded the Master Institute of United Arts, in which he planned to realize the educational concepts he had incorporated into the curriculum in St. Petersburg. The Institute flourished, but it did not survive beyond 1937 because of the Great Depression. Funds ran out and events caused a complete collapse of the organization that Roerich and his supporters had labored to build. In 1949 the institution was reborn as the Nicholas Roerich Museum, in a brownstone on West 107th Street, where it still remains. It houses one of the most comprehensive collections of the artist's work in the world. Faith and Spirit In May 1923, the Roerichs went to India, where, in that ageless land, amid the snows of the Himalayan range, they sought to turn their thoughts to the Eternal. They landed in Bombay in December, 1923 and began a tour of cultural centers and historic sites, meeting Indian scientists, scholars, artists and writers along the way. By the end of December they were in Sikkim on the southern slopes of the Himalayas where they began an arduous trek. They crossed thirty-five mountain passes from fourteen to twenty-one thousand feet in elevation. | ||||
