В ноябре мы отступили от традиционной формы знакомства читателей с основными биографическими фактами художников. На это раз вашему вниманию предлагается небольшая статья на английском языке, отражающая взгляд нашего современника на творческий путь Николая Константиновича Рериха.

Nicholas Roerich

The Life and Art of a Russian Master

by Jacqueline Decter

with a Nicholas Roerich Museum

Artist, writer, humanist, philosopher, educator, explorer, archeologist and peacemaker, Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947) left a legacy that spans four continents and comprises some 7,000 paintings, drawings and set and costume designs; thirty books; and countless articles and lectures. The Roerich Peace Pact – a remarkable treaty that sought to preserve cultural monuments during times of war – signed in the White House in the presence of President Roosevelt and many other world leaders, earned the artist a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize as well as the ardent support of Albert Einstein, H.G. Wells and George Bernard Show.

Who was Nicholas Roerich? What were the motivating forces behind his life and art? And why is so little known today about this extraordinary man? In one of the most original art books to be published in recent years, author and Russian scholar Jacqueline Decter illuminates the course of Nicholas Roerich’s eventful life, drawing on material from original sources translated for the first time into English. Born and educated in St. Petersburg, Roerich believed that the evolution of culture depended on a synthesis of knowledge from all fields of human endeavour, and it was to this purpose that he directed his vast creative talents. In the turbulent art world of fin de siècle Europe , Roerich’s far-reaching vision received enthusiastic recognition, and it was not long before he was invited to exhibit his work in the major art centres of Western Europe and the United States.

But at the time of his death, like many other great visionaries, he was all but forgotten outside his native Russia and his adopted India. Gradually, however, there has been a resurgence of interest in Roerich’s art and its message: his paintings can be seen in museums and private collections throughout the world – including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.