I recently stumbled upon a Nicholas Roerich Musuem website and I was very very amazed by his collection of art works. I am so surprised to see spiritual paintings and depictions of Tibet, Lama Tsongkhapa and Buddha Maitreya in his collections. I am so happy to see this and I thank the Nicholas Roerich’s Museum of New York for having his art preserved and shared online. It is a treasure of the past we can certainly learn and appreciate from. I have placed the paintings and information here to create more awareness on this great explorer, philosopher, traveler and spiritualist. For more, you must go to his websites.

Apparently Nicholas and his wife Helena Roerich were thought to be Russian superheroes. They inspired the path for spiritual growth and life similar to what in America is called “global awakening”. This is a philosophy that encompasses all peoples and faiths. They both saw through their travels, the different religions and practices, but these all pointed to the same ‘truth’ in different ways. And this different way-of-looking was also the cause for war. They opened the doors to Buddhism and the search form mysticism in their country when it was not mainstream.

Their art trails the path they explored and traveled, from the Middle Eastern land right up to the Himalayas and they continuously visited ‘Shambala’. Many people in Russia liked them for their appearance, manners, simplicity, and generosity. They were great artists, creating wonderful paintings and writings that were thought-provoking. They also were known as philosophers, speakers, teachers, scientists, patrons of the arts, public figures, and cultural workers.

Nicholas and his wife Helena conveyed their understanding and experiences in their beautiful enchanting art and writings of Eastern practices, and thoughts of the Ascended Masters. They were certainly spiritual seekers and many of Nicholas’s paintings featured hidden treasure in the mountains or in water, symbolizing the search in high places for the truth that is hidden within us.

Below I’ve shared with you his biography and also selected a few of his beautiful paintings that I thought you may appreciate and enjoy…I am definitely a fan of his mystical and magical paintings. Gazing upon them brings me to another dimension. Another time. Another reality. His art is imbued with a special blessing that comes from deep within the soul. Within ourselves. We are all looking for the Shangrila that Nicholas Roerich searched for in the vastness of Northern Asia. Through his art we glimpse something ethereal and deep.

Tsem Rinpoche

Selected Galleries of Nicholas Roerich
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One of Diaghilev’s first achievements was the founding, with Princess Maria Tenisheva and others, of the magazine The World of Art. This magazine enjoyed a relatively short life but had an important influence in Russian art circles. The magazine declared itself the enemy of the academicians, the sentimentalists, and the realists. It introduced to its readership, which was made up mostly of the intelligentsia, the vital elements of Russian artistic circles, European post-impressionism, and the modernist movement. Roerich contributed to it and sat on its editorial board. Other Russian painters involved were Alexandre Benois and Leon Bakst, who later became Roerich’s co-workers in the early days of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes.

After finishing his university thesis, Roerich planned to set off for a year in Europe to visit the museums, exhibitions, studios, and salons of Paris and Berlin. Just before leaving he met Helena, daughter of the architect Shaposhnikov and niece of the composer Mussorgsky. There seems to have been an immediate mutual attraction, and they were soon engaged to be married. On his return from Europe their marriage took place.

Helena Roerich was an unusually gifted woman, a talented pianist, and author of many books, including The Foundations of Buddhism and a Russian translation of Helena Blavatsky’s Secret Doctrine. Her collected Letters, in two volumes, are an example of the wisdom, spiritual insight, and simple advice she shared with a multitude of correspondents — friends, foes, and co-workers alike.

Later, in New York, Nicholas and Helena Roerich founded the Agni Yoga Society, which espoused a living ethic encompassing and synthesizing the philosophies and religious teachings of all ages.

Prompted by the need to provide some income for his new household, Roerich applied for and 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.

Roerich determined to overhaul the Society and rescue it from the academic mediocrity it had foundered in for many years. He instituted a system of training in art that seems revolutionary even by today’s standards: to teach all the arts — painting, music, singing, dance, theater, and the so-called “industrial arts”, such as ceramics, painting on porcelain, pottery, and mechanical drawing — under one roof, and to give his faculty free rein to design their own curriculum.

The cross-fertilization of the arts that Roerich promoted was evidence of his inclination to harmonize, bring together, and find correspondences between apparent conflicts or opposites in all areas of life. This was a hallmark of his thinking, and one sees it demonstrated in all the disciplines he explored. He constantly sought to break down compartmentalization, and, indeed, even in his own art he defied categorization and created a universe uniquely personal. In his writings on ethics also, it can be seen that he constantly sought to connect ethical problems with scientific knowledge of the surrounding world.

It was Roerich’s gift that these “connections” appeared so natural to him and presented themselves in all life’s manifestations. And it was this talent for synthesis, which he admired in others and encouraged in the young, that 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. He reminded us that these contradictions were often the result of man’s ignorance, and that an expanding consciousness, which each individual was duty-bound to pursue, would lead to eventual recognition of the illusoriness, or relativity, of things. As Garabed Paelian affirms in his book Nicholas Roerich: Roerich “…learned things ignored by other men; perceived relations between seemingly isolated phenomena, and unconsciously felt the presence of an unknown treasure.” Perhaps it is this “unknown treasure” that in Roerich’s paintings speaks to the viewer who is attuned to that underlying meaning, and further explains the transcendental feelings that some experience through his canvases.

In 1902, the Roerichs celebrated the birth of their first son, George, and in the summers of 1903 and 1904, they set off on an extended tour of forty cities throughout Russia. Roerich’s purpose was to contrast the styles and historical context of Russian architecture. The voyage was one of discovery, for wherever they went he was able to locate the remnants of Russia’s past — 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 1904 Roerich painted the first of his paintings on religious themes. These mostly dealt with Russian saints and legends, and included Message to Tiron, Fiery Furnace, and The Last Angel, subjects that he returned to with numerous variants in later years. The Treasure of the Angels was described by one writer: “A host of angels in white garments stand silently row after row guarding a mysterious treasure with which are bound up the destinies of the world. It is a blue black stone with an image of the crucifix cut into it, glowing with emerald hues.” The angels are an early depiction of the hierarchical Masters that peopled the heart of Roerich’s belief in a Great Brotherhood, watching over and guiding humanity in its eternal journey of evolution. The “stone” pictured by Roerich is the representation of an image that recurs in different forms in his paintings and throughout his writings. The word “treasure” figures prominently in the titles of many of Roerich’s paintings, as, for instance, in The Treasure of the Mountain and Hidden Treasure. It is clearly not material wealth that he refers to, but rather the spiritual treasures that lie buried, yet available to those with the will to unearth them.

Meanwhile Roerich’s search for archeological treasures continued. The Stone Age particularly intrigued him, and he amassed a large collection of artifacts from that era. His paintings frequently reflected this interest, as in Three Glaives in which the subject matter is archeological in nature, and relates to an ancient legend. Roerich wrote about the unusual similarity of Stone Age techniques and methods of ornamentation in far-separated regions of the globe. In comparing these correspondences, he came to instructive conclusions as to the commonality of human expression and creativity.

T H E  T H E A T R I C A L  Y E A R S

In 1906, in the first of many entrepreneurial efforts that were to bring Russian art and music to the attention of Europeans, Sergei Diaghilev arranged an exhibition of Russian paintings in Paris. These included sixteen works by Nicholas Roerich. The next year, Diaghilev introduced Fyodor Chaliapin to Paris audiences, along with the music of Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Glazunov, Stravinsky, and others. 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, Fokine, and Nijinsky. Roerich’s designs furthered his reputation for the telling depiction of ancient cultures and their practices.

Diaghilev pioneered an art form that involved the collaboration of the designer as “auteur.” Thus Alexandre Benois influenced the creation of the ballet Petrouchka, and Nicholas Roerich was the prime mover and, with Igor Stravinsky, the co-creator of the ballet Le Sacre du Printemps, or, The Rite of Spring.

At first entitled The Great Sacrifice: a Tableau of Pagan Russia, the motif for the ballet grew out of Roerich’s absorption with antiquity and, as he wrote in a letter to Diaghilev, “the beautiful cosmogony of earth and sky.” In the ballet Roerich sought to express the primitive rites of ancient man as he welcomed spring, the life-giver, and made sacrifice to Yarilo, the Sun God. It was a story unlike that of any ballet before it. Stravinsky’s score and Nijinsky’s choreography were equally unexpected, and provoked controversy that was to continue for many years.

At the opening in Paris on May 29, 1913, one of the audience described the scene: “Nothing that has ever been written about the battle of Le Sacre du Printemps has given a faint idea of what actually took place. The theater seemed to be shaken by an earthquake. It shuddered. People shouted insults, howled and whistled, drowning out the music. There was slapping and even punching…the ballet was astoundingly beautiful.”

Interpreting what could have been described as negative, barbaric behavior, Roerich later wrote: “I remember how during the first performance the audience whistled and roared so that nothing could even be heard. Who knows, perhaps at that very moment they were inwardly exultant and expressing this feeling like the most primitive of peoples. But I must say, this wild primitivism had nothing in common with the refined primitiveness of our ancestors, for whom rhythm, the sacred symbol, and refinement of gesture were great and sacred concepts.”

Sacre represented the culmination of Roerich’s collaboration with Diaghilev. He recognized in the impresario a true champion of Russian art, and after Diaghilev’s death in 1929 wrote: “We may regard the…achievement of Diaghilev as that of a great individual, but it would be still more exact to regard him as the true representative of an entire movement of synthesis, an eternally young representative of the great moment when modern art shattered so many conventions and superficialities.”

T H E  C L O U D S  O F  W A R

In the years immediately preceding World War I, Roerich sensed an impending cataclysm, and his paintings symbolically depicted the awful scale of the conflict he felt descending upon the world. These works marked the birth of Roerich the “prophet.”

In Battle in the Heavens Roerich used the violent contrast of light and darkness to suggest the terrible events that would soon overtake Russia and all Europe.

By this time, in his depiction of both historical and natural themes, symbolism and the use of allegory had become essential ingredients in his work. As one critic wrote: “He populated his world not with participants in transitory dramas and comedies, but with spokesmen for the most steadfast ideas about the truth of life, the millennial struggle of good and evil, the triumphal procession of a bright future for all.”

T R A V E L  T O  O T H E R  S H O R E S

In 1915 Roerich became ill with pneumonia, and was sent by his doctor to recuperate with his family in Sortavala, Finland. This was a period of great unrest the world over, and no less so in the lives of the Roerich family. In Roerich’s paintings of the period, such as Karelia — Eternal Expectation and The Waiting Woman the cold, austere countryside of rocks and uninhabited shores of the north seems to express a sense of poignant longing. In The Waiting Woman, her gaze is fixed on the horizon as if she awaits some sign of the return of long-gone voyagers.

By 1917 the revolution was raging in Russia and returning there would have been dangerous. The family began making plans to visit India, whose magnetic appeal had been felt increasingly during these years. This became a possibility in 1918 when Roerich was invited by a Swedish entrepreneur to exhibit his paintings in Stockholm. From there the family proceeded to London, where Sir Thomas Beecham had invited Roerich to design a new production of Prince Igor for the Covent Garden Opera.

A M E R I C A

Meanwhile, an invitation to come to America was extended by the Chicago Art Institute. It was accepted, and the tour opened successfully at the Kingore Gallery in New York in 1920. In addition to exhibiting over 400 paintings there and in many cities throughout 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, Roerich painted a series in New Mexico, and the Ocean Series in Monhegan, Maine, where the family spent a summer. He responded to the spirit of enterprise he found in America and frequently wrote about the positive influence its developing technology would have on the world. Seeds were planted and the lives of individuals influenced by Roerich’s magnetism and sense of mission.

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. He attracted a talented group of instructors. They included Deems Taylor, teaching musical theory and composition, Robert Edmund Jones and Lee Simonson, teaching theater design, and top quality instructors in courses that included all musical instruments, aspects of painting and drawing, design and illustration, sculpture, architecture, ballet, drama, journalism, and languages — and lectures were presented by noted individuals such as George Bellows, Claude Bragdon, Norman Bel Geddes, and Stark Young.

The Master Institute flourished, but it did not survive beyond 1937. While the country was in the grips of the Great Depression and the Roerich family was on expedition in the Far East, funds ran out and events caused a complete collapse of the organization that Roerich and his supporters had labored to build.

It was not until 1949 that, under the direction of Sina Fosdick, one of the founding board members and an Institute faculty member, the institution was reborn as Nicholas Roerich Museum, in a brownstone on West 107th Street, where it has remained until the present. Many paintings from the original collection can now be seen there, and in the intervening years major works have been added, making it one of the most comprehensive collections of the artist’s work in the world.

During their stay in America the Roerichs continued to plan for the voyage to India. An orientation toward Eastern spiritual values is reflected in much of Roerich’s creative work of the time. This is seen in his Ocean Series — the three paintings, Himself Came, The Bridge of Glory, and Miracle demonstrate the spiritual power that was beginning to characterize his work. In The Bridge of Glory, Saint Sergius of Radonezh walks in contemplation before a blue bridge formed by the aurora borealis, Roerich’s metaphor for the future spiritual bridge that will connect heaven and earth.

Between 1916 and 1919 Roerich had written a collection of sixty-four blank verse poems that were published in Berlin, in Russian, under the title Flowers of Morya, and subsequently published in English as Flame in Chalice. In them we find Roerich’s inner journey charted and his commitment to spiritual search stated. These poems evoke some of the images that Roerich later used in his paintings, and in a way help us to understand the symbols and meanings that lie behind some of them.

In her essay Flowers of Morya: the Theme of Spiritual Pilgrimage in the Poetry of Nicholas Roerich, Irina Corten writes: “At the core of Roerich’s belief system is the Hindu concept of a beginningless and endless universe which manifests itself in recurring cycles of creation and dissolution of material forms caused by the pulsation of divine energy. On the human plane, this means the rise and fall of civilizations and, in terms of individual life, the reincarnation of a soul…” As Roerich, the poet, writes, in the poem About the Eternal:

Brother, let us abandon all that rapidly changes.
Otherwise we will not have time to turn our thoughts to thatwhich is changeless for all.
To the eternal.

In May, 1923, the Roerichs were at last on their way to India, where, in that ageless land, amid the snows of the Himalayan range, they sought to turn their thoughts to the Eternal.

I N D I A

The Roerichs 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 already in Sikkim on the southern slopes of the Himalayas, and it is clear by the speed with which they reached the mountains that the Himalayas were where their interest lay.

They initiated a journey of exploration that would take them into Chinese Turkestan, Altai, Mongolia and Tibet. It was an expedition into untracked regions where they planned to study the religions, languages, customs, and culture of the inhabitants.

Roerich wrote about this first Central Asiatic Expedition in his book Heart of Asia, and he creates for the reader a vivid account of the wonder of the land and its people. However, the images are nowhere as vivid as in the five hundred or so paintings that resulted from the trek. In Kanchenjunga, Sikkim Pass, His Country, The Great Spirit of the Himalayas, and the Banners of the East series, we can see philosophical concepts and ideas giving birth to visual images, and the splendor of Northern India providing the physical setting.

In The Path, the figure of Christ leads the way along a tortuous path through crags and peaks of the Himalayas, a metaphor for the hazardous obstacles confronting the spiritual journeyer. Eastern religious figures and concepts appear in the paintings, important among these being the images of the Lord Maitreya — the Buddhist Messiah, the Kalki-Avatar of the Puranas, Rigden Jyepo of Mongolia, or the White Burkhan of Altai — all of whom are described in legends that link them with the Ruler of Shambhala, who is “destined to appear on earth for the final destruction of the wicked, the renovation of creation and the restoration of purity.”(quoted from The Theosophical Glossary, by H. P. Blavatsky)

The trek was at times arduous. Roerich tells us that thirty-five mountain passes from fourteen to twenty-one thousand feet in elevation were crossed. But these were the challenges he felt born for, believing that the rigor of the mountains helped a man to find courage and develop strength of spirit. And in spite of obstacles, wherever they went the Roerichs’ belief in the essential goodness of life and the spirituality of man was reinforced. Roerich’s Banners of the East series of nineteen paintings depicting the world’s religious teachers, Mohammed, Jesus, Moses, Confucius, and Buddha, and the Indian and Christian saints and sages, was a testimonial to the unity of religious striving and the common roots of man’s faith.

At counterpoint to these themes in Roerich’s painting is the image of Woman and her destined role in the coming era, and we can assume that what Helena Roerich wrote to a friend in 1937 reflects Nicholas’ own point of view: “…woman should realize that she herself contains all forces, and the moment she shakes off the age-old hypnosis of her seemingly lawful subjugation and mental inferiority and occupies herself with a manifold education, she will create in collaboration with man a new and better world… Cosmos affirms the greatness of woman’s creative principle. Woman is a personification of nature, and it is nature that teaches man, not man nature. Therefore, may all women realize the grandeur of their origin, and may they strive for knowledge.” (published in Letters of Helena Roerich 1935-1939, vol. II)

Nicholas Roerich depicted the great female deities in such paintings as She Who Leads, Madonna Laboris, and The Mother of the World. This latter conception, equivalent to the Lakshmi and Kali of India, is one of Roerich’s most inspiring images, rendered with majesty in deep tones of blue and violet. Helena Roerich’s contribution in the life and work of Nicholas cannot be overestimated. Their union could be best described as a lifetime collaboration in fields of mutual endeavor. Her philosophy, comprising a living ethic, was shared by Nicholas and motivated him in his work and his life. At some time in their late years an anniversary approached and he wrote in his diary: “Forty years — no less than forty. On such a long voyage, meeting many storms and dangers from without, together we overcame all obstacles. And obstacles turned into possibilities. I dedicated my books to Helena, my wife, friend, traveling companion, inspirer! Each of these concepts was tested in the fire of life. And in Petersburg, Scandinavia, England, America, and in all Asia we worked, we studied, we broadened our consciousness. Together we created, and not without reason is it said that the work should bear two names — a feminine and a masculine.”

At the end of their major expedition, in 1928, the family settled in the Kullu Valley at an elevation of 6,500 feet in the Himalayan foothills, with a magnificent view of the valley and the surrounding mountains. Here they established their home and the headquarters of the Urusvati Himalayan Research Institute, which was organized to study the results of their expedition, and of those explorations that were yet to come. The Institute’s activities included botanical and ethnological-linguistic studies, and the exploration of archeological sites. Under the direction of their father the two Roerich sons, George and Svetoslav, established a collection of medicinal herbs, and made extensive studies in botany and ancient medical lore, as well as in Tibetan and Chinese pharmacopoeia.

In the following year, on a trip back to New York for the opening of the Roerich Museum’s new premises, Roerich raised an issue that had been close to his heart for many years. Using the Red Cross as an example, he proposed a treaty for the protection of cultural treasures during times of both war and peace — a proposal he had unsuccessfully tried to promote in 1914. In consultation with lawyers versed in international law, he drafted a Pact, and suggested that a flag would be flown over all places under its protection. This flag he called the Banner of Peace. The design of the Banner shows three spheres surrounded by a circle, in magenta color on a white background. Of the many national and individual interpretations of this symbol, the most usual are perhaps those of Religion, Art and Science as aspects of Culture, which is the surrounding circle; or of past, present, and future achievements of humanity guarded within the circle of Eternity. The symbol can be seen in the seal of Tamerlane, in Tibetan, Caucasian, and Scandinavian jewelry, and on Byzantine and Roman artifacts. The image of the Strasbourg Madonna is adorned with it. It can be seen in many of Roerich’s paintings, most notably Madonna Oriflamma, in which Woman is depicted as the carrier and defender of the Banner. In this sign and the motto, Pax Cultura, that accompanies it, is symbolized Roerich’s vision for humanity. As he wrote: “Let us be united — you will ask in what way? You will agree with me: in the easiest way, to create a common and sincere language. Perhaps in Beauty and Knowledge.” Roerich’s efforts to promulgate such a treaty resulted, finally, on April 15, 1935, in the signing by the nations of the Americas — members of the Pan American Union — of The Roerich Pact, in the White House in Washington. This is a treaty still in force. Many individuals, groups, and associations around the world continue to promote awareness of the Pact, the Banner, and their underlying principles.

It is in his Himalayan paintings that one most easily finds evidence of the loftiness of spirit and sense of mission that led Roerich to attempt the tasks he set for himself. In them can be seen the sense of drama, the urgency of a message to send or receive, a traveler to greet, a mission to perform, a path to travel. The towering mountains stand for the spiritual goals that humanity must set for itself. Roerich urges people on to their spiritual destiny and reminds them of their duty to prepare for the New Era in which Rigden Jyepo will gather his army and under the Banner of Light defeat the host of darkness. Roerich the warrior was already armed and mounted; he sought to muster his army for the battle, and bid that their breastplates bear the word “culture.”

The pursuit of refinement and beauty was sacred for Roerich. He believed that although earthly temples and artifacts may perish, the thought that brings them into existence does not die but is part of an eternal stream of consciousness — man’s aspirations nourished by his directed will and by the energy of thought. Finally, he believed that peace on Earth was a prerequisite to planetary survival and the continuing process of spiritual evolution, and he exhorted his fellow man to help achieve that peace by uniting in the common language of Beauty and Knowledge.

Nicholas Roerich died in Kullu on December 13, 1947. His body was cremated and its ashes buried on a slope facing the mountains he loved and portrayed in many of his nearly seven thousand works.

Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/NicholasRoerichDocumentary.mp4

MANJU KAK ON NICHOLAS ROERICH

Nicholas Roerich’s influence and legacy in the fields of art, exploration and spirituality cannot be underestimated. There have been a number of books written about his life and works, and one of them is edited by award winning writer Manju Kak. She is an author, critic, and art and cultural historian. She holds a Ph.D. in Art History from the National Museum, New Delhi, and has worked as a Visiting Professor at learning institutions all over the world, including in the UK, and Hong Kong. It is in the book entitled ‘Nicholas Roerich – A Quest & A Legacy’ that the 21 scholarly articles give details about Nicholas being an artist and spiritual thinker. The book seeks to answer the controversies surrounding him from various perspectives, showcasing his brilliance in an illuminating manner.

Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/ManjuKakOnNicholasRoerich.mp4

Manju Kak was interviewed about the book by journalist Sunil Sethi, and explains her fascination with Himalayan ethnography and culture, as well as what makes Nicholas Roerich and his work so special.

Nicholas Roerich (1874 – 1947)

Tsong-Kha-Pa. Drawing. 1924

Maitreya. Album leaf. 1932

Hidden Treasure. From “Heroica” suite. 1917.
Oil tempera on canvas. 48.5 x 76.5 cm

Bridge of Glory 1923.
Tempera on canvas. 82 x 163 cm

Drops of Life. From “Sikkim” series. 1924.
Tempera on canvas. 74 x 117.5 cm

Mother of the World. 1930s
Tempera on canvas mounted on cardboard. 98 x 65.5 cm

Path to Tibet. 1925
Tempera on canvas mounted on cardboard. 30.5 x 40.5 cm.
Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York

Krishna. From “Kulu” series. 1929
Tempera on canvas. 74 x 118 cm

St. Panteleimon the Healer. 1931
Tempera on canvas. 44.5 x 78.5 cm

The Greatest and Holiest of Tangla. 1932
Tempera on canvas. 61.5 x 97 cm.
Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York

Himalayas. 1933
Tempera on canvas. 74.5 x 118 cm.
Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York

Most Sacred (Treasure of the Mountain). 1933
Tempera on canvas. 73.5 x 117 cm.
Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York

Mount of Five Treasures (Two Worlds).
From “Holy Mountains” series. 1933
Tempera on canvas. 47 x 79 cm

Path to Shambhala. 1933.
Tempera on canvas. 46.5 x 78.5 cm

Tibet. Himalayas. 1933.
Tempera on canvas. 74 x 117 cm

Great Spirit of the Himalayas. 1934
Tempera on canvas. 76.5 x 103 cm.
Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York

Kanchenjunga. 1936
Tempera on canvas. 60.5 x 99 cm.
Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York

Star of the Hero. 1936.
Variant of “Star of the Hero” (1932)
Tempera on canvas. 92 x 122 cm

Tempera on canvas mounted on cardboard. 98 x 65.5 cm

Overseas Guests. 1901
Oil on canvas. 85 x 112.5 cm.
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Building the Ships. 1903
Oil on canvas. 108 x 142.5 cm.
State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow

Uglich. Monastery of the Resurrection. 1904
From “Studies from journey through old Russian towns”.
Oil on panel. 46 x 83 cm.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Slavs on the Dnieper. 1905
Tempera on cardboard. 67 x 89 cm.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Treasure of the Angels. Mural design. 1905
Oil on canvas. 321.5 x 367 cm.
Private collection

Polovtsian Camp. Décor for Borodin’s opera “Prince Igor”. 1908 (from a reproduction)
For Diaghilev’s production, Théâtre Châtelet, Paris, 1909
Pastel, gouache, charcoal on paper mounted on cardboard. 52 x 70.5 cm
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Idols (Pagan Russia). 1910 (begun in 1901) (from a reproduction)
Tempera on canvas. 157.5 x 170 cm.
Whereabouts unknown

Battle in the Heavens. 1912
Tempera on cardboard. 66 x 95 cm.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Kiss to the Earth. 2nd variant.
Décor for Stravinsky’s ballet “Le Sacre du Printemps”. 1912
For Diaghilev’s production, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris, 1913
Tempera and pastel on cardboard. 62 x 94 cm.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Décor for Ostrovsky’s play “Snegurochka”. 1912
For Ostrovsky’s play; Reineke Russian Theatre, St.Petersburg, 1912
Tempera on cardboard. 56 x 70 cm.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Cry of the Serpent. 1914
Tempera on panel. 84 x 98 cm.
Pskov History and Art Museum, Russia

Procopius the Blessed Prays for the Unknown Travelers. 1914.
Tempera on cardboard. 70 x 105 cm.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Birds of the Morning (Messengers of Morn). 1917
Oil tempera on canvas. 49 x 77 cm.
Private collection

Holy Island. 1917.
Tempera on canvas. 49 x 77 cm.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Knight of the Evening.
From “Eques Æternus” suite. 1918
Oil tempera on panel. 44.5 x 72.5 cm.
University of North Carolina, Charlotte, USA

Karelia landscape (Lake Ladoga). 1918 .
Oil tempera on panel. 47 x 84 cm.
Private collection, USA

Red Mountains. Santa Fe. 1921 .
Tempera on cardboard. 45.5 x 77 cm.
N.Roerich International Centre-Museum, Moscow

Monhegan, Maine. From “Ocean” series. 1922
Tempera on cardboard. 54.5 x 81 cm.
N.Roerich International Centre-Museum, Moscow

And We Open the Gates. From “Sancta” series. 1922
Tempera on canvas. 71 x 101.5 cm.
N.Roerich International Centre-Museum, Moscow

The Miracle. From “Messiah” series. 1923
Tempera on canvas. 74 x 209.5 cm.
State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow

She Who Leads. From “His Country” series. 1924
Tempera on canvas. 89 x 116.5 cm.
N.Roerich International Centre-Museum, Moscow

Buddha, the Conqueror.
From “Banners of the East” series. 1925
Tempera on canvas. 73.5 x 118 cm.
Private collection, Moscow

Maitreya, the Conqueror.
From “Maitreya” suite. 1926 (or end of 1925)
Tempera on canvas. 73 x 101 cm.
Nizhnii Novgorod State Art Museum, Russia

Steed of Good Fortune.
From “Maitreya” suite. 1926 (or end of 1925)
Tempera on canvas. 72 x 101 cm.
Nizhnii Novgorod State Art Museum, Russia

Command of Rigden Djapo. 1926–27
Tempera on canvas. 61 x 120 cm.
Private collection, Moscow

Rocks of the Buddhist Caves. 1927 or 1928
Tempera on canvas mounted on cardboard. 29 x 40 cm.
Private collection, USA

Shekar Dzong. 1928
Tempera on canvas. 76 x 142 cm.
Private collection, Moscow

Flowers of Timur. 1931 .
Tempera on canvas. 75 x 118 cm.
State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow

Devidar Narsinga. 1932 .
Tempera on canvas. 74 x 117 cm.
Allahabad Museum, India

Stronghold of Tibet. 1932
Tempera on canvas. 46.5 x 79 cm.
State Museum of Art, Riga, Latvia

All ridge. 1924
Himalayan Mountains

Descent into Hell. 1933
Tempera on canvas. 61 x 50 cm.
State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow

St. Sergius Chapel. 1936.
Tempera on canvas. 61 x 99.5 cm.
State Museum of Art, Riga, Latvia

Himalayas. 1936
Tempera on cardboard. 30.5 x 45.5 cm.
State Museum of Art, Riga, Latvia

Compassion. 1936
Tempera on canvas. 61.5 x 92.5 cm.
State Museum of Art, Riga, Latvia

Mongolia. 1937 or 1938
Tempera on canvas. 92 x 123 cm.
State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow

Voice of Mongolia. 1937
Tempera on canvas. 45.5 x 78.5 cm.
State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow

Changthang. Northern Tibet. 1939
Tempera on canvas. 61 x 91.5 cm.
State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow

Message to Tiron. 1940 .
Tempera on canvas. 76 x 124 cm.
State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow

Northern Midnight. 1940
Tempera on canvas. 76 x 123 cm.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Awaiting One. 1941 Variant of “They Are Waiting” (1917)
Tempera on canvas. 62 x 123 cm.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Gesar Khan. 1941 .
Tempera on canvas. 91 x 152.5 cm.
Private collection, Moscow

Beneficial Herbs (Vasilisa the Beautiful). 1941
Tempera on canvas. 76 x 121.5 cm.
State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow

Boris and Gleb. 1942
Tempera on canvas. 61 x 123 cm.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Prince Igor’s Campaign. 1942
Tempera on canvas. 62 x 122 cm.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Lao Tze. 1943
Tempera on canvas. 38 x 122 cm.
State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow

Song of Shambhala. 1943
Tempera on canvas. 79 x 137 cm.
State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow

Mountain Lake. Baralacha Pass. 1944
Tempera on canvas. 61 x 123 cm.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Beda the Preacher. 1945
Tempera on canvas. 71.5 x 130 cm.
State Art Museum, Novosibirsk, Russia

Brahmaputra. 1945
Tempera on canvas. 41 x 103 cm.
State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow

Krishna. 1946
Tempera on canvas. 79 x 154 cm.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Abode of Gesar. 1947
Tempera on canvas. 61 x 102 cm.
State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow

Command of the Master. 1947 Last work of the artist.
Variant of “Command of the Master” (1931)
Tempera on canvas. 84 x 153 cm.
State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow

Hidden Treasure. 1947 Variant of “Hidden Treasure” (1917) Tempera on canvas.
91 x 150 cm. State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow

Lhasa. 1947
Tempera on canvas. 92 x 154 cm.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Lights on the Ganges. 1947
Tempera on canvas. 82 x 137 cm.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

In Thought. 1946
Tempera on canvas. 60.5 x 103 cm.
State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow

Himalayas. c. 1936–47
Tempera on cardboard. 28 x 44 cm.

Banner of the East

Buddha, the Conqueror. 1925
Tempera on canvas. 73.5 x 118 cm.
Private collection, Moscow

Confucius, the Just One. 1925
Tempera on canvas. 73.5 x 117 cm.
Bolling collection, USA

Dorje, the Daring One. 1925
Tempera on canvas. 74 x 117.5 cm.
Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York

En-no-Gyoja, the Friend of the Travelers. 1925
Tempera on canvas. 74 x 118 cm.
Private collection, Russia

Lao Tze. 1924
Tempera on canvas. 73.5 x 117 cm.
Bolling collection, USA

Milarepa, the One Who Harkened. 1925
Tempera on canvas. 73.5 x 117.5 cm.
Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York

Mohammed on Mount Hira. 1925
Tempera on canvas. 73 x 117 cm.
Private collection, Moscow

Moses, the Leader. 1925 Tempera on canvas. 73.5 x 119.5 cm.
Private collection, Russia

Nagarjuna, the Conqueror of the Serpent. 1925
Tempera on canvas. 73.5 x 117.5 cm.
N.Roerich International Centre-Museum, Moscow

Oirot, the Messenger of the White Burkhan. 1925
Tempera on canvas. 73 x 117 cm.
N.Roerich International Centre-Museum, Moscow

Padma Sambhava. 1924
Tempera on canvas. 74 x 117 cm.
Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York

The Chalice of Christ. 1925
Tempera on canvas. 75 x 117 cm.
Private collection, Moscow

The Serpent of Wisdom. 1924
Tempera on canvas. 74 x 117 cm.
Private collection, Moscow

Tsong-Kha-Pa. 1924 (from a reproduction)
Tempera on canvas. 73.5 x 117 cm.
Private collection

Buddhist Art

Wular Lake.
From “Lakes and Gilgit Path” series. 1925
Tempera and charcoal on paper mounted on cardboard. 25 x 35.5 cm
Private collection, New York

The Holies.
From “Tibetan Path” series. 1924 (from a monotone print)
Tempera. 31 x 47 cm.
Private collection, New York

The Holies.
From “Tibetan Path” series. 1924
Private collection

NR066 Temple of Naggar.
From “Kulu” series. 1929
Tempera on canvas. 74.5 x 118 cm.
Private collection, USA

Song of the Waterfall. Décorative panel.
From “Dreams of Wisdom” series. 1920
Tempera on canvas. 235 x 122 cm.
Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York

Pir Panjal.
From the series of the same title. 1925
Tempera on canvas mounted on cardboard. 65.5 x 98 cm.
Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York

Path to Kailas.
From “Holy Mountains” series. 1933
Tempera on canvas. 46.5 x 79 cm.
Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York

Nag Lake.
From “Lakes and Gilgit Path” series. 1925
Tempera on canvas. 47 x 79.5 cm.
Private collection

Mount of Five Treasures (Two Worlds).
From “Holy Mountains” series. 1933
Tempera on canvas. 47 x 79 cm.
Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York

Himalayas.
From “Holy Mountains” series. 1933
Tempera on canvas. 47 x 79 cm.
State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow

Gobshi.
From “Tibetan Path” series. 1924
Tempera on canvas mounted on cardboard. 31 x 47.5 cm
N.Roerich International Centre-Museum, Moscow

Bharagarh Fort.
From “Kulu” series. 1929
Tempera on canvas mounted on cardboard. 32 x 41.5 cm.
Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York

Gumran.
From “Lahul” series. 1932
Tempera on canvas. 47 x 79.5 cm.
State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow

Arjuna.
From “Kulu” series. 1929
Tempera on canvas. 74.5 x 118 cm.
N.Roerich International Centre-Museum, Moscow

Dal Lake.
From “Lakes and Gilgit Path” series. 1925
Tempera on canvas. 62.5 x 81.5 cm.
Private collection

Palden Lhamo.
1932. Tempera on canvas. 81.4×127 cm.
Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York

Major Collection

Bhagavan. 1931
Tempera on canvas. 45 x 79 cm

Compassion. 1936
Tempera on canvas. 61.5 x 92.5 cm

Fujiyama. 1936
Tempera on cardboard. 30.5 x 45.5 cm

Ladakh. 1937
Tempera on cardboard. 31 x 46 cm

Lake of the Nagas. Kashmir. 1937
Tempera on cardboard. 31 x 46 cm

Madonna Laboris. Study. 1936
Tempera on cardboard. 31 x 46 cm

Maitreya. Album leaf. 1932
Tempera on paper. 25 x 36.5 cm

Maitreya. Album leaf. 1932
Tempera on paper. 25 x 36.5 cm

Om Mani Padme Hum. 1932
Tempera on canvas. 45 x 79 cm

On the Heights (Tumo). 1936
Tempera on canvas. 92 x 122 cm

St. Sergius Chapel. 1936
Tempera on canvas. 61 x 99.5 cm

Stronghold of Tibet. 1932
Tempera on canvas. 46.5 x 79 cm

The Path. 1936
Tempera on canvas. 91.5 x 122 cm

Tibet. Evening. 1937
Tempera on cardboard. 31 x 46 cm

Tsong-Kha-Pa. Drawing. 1924
Black chalk, gouache on paper. 51 x 32 cm

His Country 1924

Book of Wisdom. 1924
Tempera on canvas. 88.5 x 117 cm.
Bolling collection, USA

He Who Hastens. 1924
Tempera on canvas. 89.5 x 116.5 cm.
Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York

Higher than the Mountains. 1924
Tempera on canvas. 73.5 x 117 cm.
Private collection, Russia

Lower than the Depths. 1924
Tempera on canvas. 90 x 115.5 cm.
Private collection

“Remember” 1924
Tempera on canvas. 87.5 x 117.5 cm.
Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York

She Who Leads. 1924
Tempera on canvas. 89 x 116.5 cm.
N.Roerich International Centre-Museum, Moscow

Treasure of the World. 1924
Tempera on canvas. 88.5 x 116.5 cm.
Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York

Sikkim 1924

Drops of Life. 1924
Tempera on canvas. 74 x 117.5 cm.
Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York

Himalayas. 1924
Tempera on canvas. 73 x 116 cm.
Private collection, USA

Mother of Tourfan. 1924
Tempera on canvas.
Private collection, USA

Namtse. 1924
Tempera on canvas. 73 x 116 cm.
Private collection, USA

Pemayangtse. 1924 (from a monochrome photograph)
Tempera on canvas.
Whereabouts unknown

Red Lama. 1924
Tempera on canvas. 73.5 x 142 cm.
Private collection, USA

Rinchenpong. 1924
Tempera on canvas. 73.5 x 118 cm.
Private collection, USA

Sacred Gift. 1924
Tempera on canvas. 90 x 118 cm.
State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow

Sangacheling. 1924
Tempera on canvas. 73.5 x 117 cm.
Private collection, New York

Silhouette. 1924
Tempera on canvas. 73.5 x 117 cm.
Private collection, USA

Steps to the Himalayas. 1924
Tempera on canvas. 72 x 114.5 cm.
Private collection, USA

Suburgan of Tashiding. 1924
Tempera on canvas. 88.5 x 117 cm.
Private collection, USA

Suburgan of Tashiding. 1924
Tempera on canvas. 88.5 x 117 cm.
Private collection, USA

Maitreya 1924

Banners of the Coming One. 1926 (or end of 1925)
Tempera on canvas. 72 x 100.5 cm.
Nizhnii Novgorod State Art Museum, Russia

Power of the Caves. 1926 (or end of 1925)
Tempera on canvas. 72.5 x 101 cm.
Nizhnii Novgorod State Art Museum, Russia

Steed of Good Fortune. 1926 (or end of 1925)
Tempera on canvas. 72 x 101 cm.
Nizhnii Novgorod State Art Museum, Russia

The March of Shambhala. 1926 (or end of 1926)
(from a monochrome photograph)
Tempera. Whereabouts unknown

Walled Stronghold. 1926 (or end of 1925)
Tempera on canvas. 73 x 101 cm.
Nizhnii Novgorod State Art Museum, Russia

Whispers of the Desert. 1926 (or end of 1925)
Tempera on canvas. 72.5 x 100.5 cm.
Nizhnii Novgorod State Art Museum, Russia

Others

Waves of Mist. 1924
Tempera on canvas mounted on cardboard. 30 x 40 cm.
Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York

The Great Sacrifice. 2nd variant. 1912
For Diaghilev’s production, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris, 1913
Tempera on cardboard. 51.5 x 73 cm.
N.Roerich International Centre-Museum, Moscow

The Great Sacrifice. 1st variant. 1910 (from a reproduction)
For Diaghilev’s production, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris, 1913
Tempera and pastel on cardboard. 54 x 75 cm.
Ia.A.Umanskaia collection, Kiev

Sanctuaries and Citadels. 1926
Tempera on canvas. 66 x 99 cm.
Private collection, USA

Sanctuaries and Citadels. 1925
Tempera on canvas mounted on cardboard. 65 x 96.5 cm.
Private collection

Sanctuaries and Citadels. 1925
Tempera on canvas. 50.5 x 70.5 cm.
N.Roerich International Centre-Museum, Moscow

Sanctuaries and Citadels. 1925
Tempera on canvas. 66 x 99 cm.
Private collection, USA

Kiss to the Earth. 2nd variant. 1912
For Diaghilev’s production, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris, 1913
Tempera and pastel on cardboard. 62 x 94 cm.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Kiss to the Earth. 3rd variant. Scenery sketch. 1912
For Diaghilev’s production, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris, 1913
Watercolor and ceruse on paper. 14.7 x 19.5 cm.
I.V.Koretskaia collection, Moscow

Kiss to the Earth. 1st variant. 1912
For Diaghilev’s production, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris, 1913
Tempera on cardboard. 56 x 81 cm.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

 
Source: http://www.roerich.org/wwp.html
 
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