Nicholas (Nikolai Konstantinovich) Roerich (1874 – 1947)

Nicholas Roerich belongs to the galaxy of outstanding workers of the Russian and world culture. Painter, scientist, traveler, public figure, writer, thinker – his versatile talent can be probably only compared with the titans of the Renaissance epoch. Nicholas Roerich’s creative heritage is enormous – more than seven thousand paintings scattered all over the world, numberless literary works – books, essays, articles, diaries...

Nicholas Roerich was born in a family of a famous notary Konstantin Fedorovich Roerich in Saint-Petersburg, on October 9, 1874.

From childhood, he was attracted by painting, archeology, history, and, first of all, richest heritage of the East. All this merged together produced afterwards an amazing result, and made Nicholas Roerich’s creative work bright and unique. 

Upon finishing the Karl May Gymnasium in 1893, Nicholas Roerich simultaneously entered the Saint-Petersburg University Faculty of Law (he graduated from it in 1898) and the Emperor’s Academy of Arts. From 1895, he studied in the studio of famous Arkhip Kuinji. At that time, he closely communicated with well-known in those days workers of culture – V. Stassov, I. Repin, N. Rimsky-Korsakov, D. Grigorovich, S. Diagilev.

In 1897, N. Roerich graduated from the Saint-Petersburg Academy of Arts, and his diploma painting “Messenger” was acquired by famous collector of Russian pieces of art P. Tretiakov.

At the age of 24, Nicholas Roerich already became assistant to the Director of the Emperor’s Art Encouragement Society Museum and, at the same time, editor assistant of the art magazine “Mir Iskusstva” (“World of the Art”).

N. Roerich with his sons. 1914 – 1915

In 1899, he met Helena Ivanovna Shaposhnikova who became his devoted companion and spiritual associate for his whole future life. Unity of views and deep mutual sympathy very quickly grew into strong and vibrant feelings, and in October 1901, the young people got married. They would pass hand in hand throughout their whole lives, supplementing each other creatively and spiritually. Helena Roerich would share all Nicholas Roerich’s aspirations and initiatives. In 1902, their son George was born, future scientist-orientalist, and in 1904 – Svetoslav, who would chose the same path as his father.

In his books, N. Roerich called Helena “inspirer” and “friendess”. She was the first to whom he showed each new painting, and he highly appreciated her artistic intuition and subtle taste. Many of the artist’s canvases were created on the basis of Helena’s images, thoughts, and creative insights. But her ideas were not only reflected in his paintings – it is hard to mention even one sphere in N. Roerich’s activities where they would not be present. Behind each Nicholas Roerich’s creative act, behind his verses and fairy-tales, behind his paintings and trips – there would always be Helena Roerich. According to S. Roerich: “Collaboration of Nicholas and Helena Roerichs was a most rare combination of full sound consonance on all planes. Supplementing each other, they seemed merged in a richest harmony of intellectual and spiritual expression”[1, p. 49].

In 1903 – 1904, N. Roerich together with his wife made a trip around old cities of Russia. They visited more than 40 cities famous for their ancient monuments. The aim of this “trip over the ancient times” was study of the roots of the Russian culture. The trip result was not only a large series of the artist’s paintings, but also N. Roerich’s first articles, in which he was one of the first to raise the issue of a great artistic value of old Russian icon painting and architecture.

The artist’s paintings on religious subjects performed in the form of frescos and mosaics sketches for the Russian churches also refer to the same period.

Nicholas Roerich’s multi-faceted talent brightly showed itself in his works for theatre productions. During S. Diagilev’s famous “Russian Seasons”, designed by N. Roerich productions “Polovets Dances” from Borodin’s “Prince Igor”, “Pskovityanka” by Rimsky-Korsakov, ballet “Sacred Spring” to Stravinsky’s music, were shown.

Thanks to Helena Roerich, Nicholas Roerich got acquainted with the works of outstanding thinkers of India – Ramakrishna and Vivekananda, R. Tagor’s literary creations, they studied together the Upanishads.

	N. Roerich. The Protecting Veil of the Holy Mother of God. 1906 – 1907. Mosaics are performed by V. Frolov. Church of the Protecting Veil of the Holy Mother of God. Village of Parkhomovka, the Kiev Region

Acquaintance with the Oriental philosophic thought got reflection in N. Roerich’s creative work. While the core subjects of the artist’s earlier paintings were ancient pagan Russia, colorful images of the folk epos, primeval splendor of the still virgin natural element (“They Build a City”, “Idols”, “Guests from Overseas”, etc.), starting already from the middle of the 1990-s, the theme of India and the East more and more often appears on his canvases and in literary pieces.

In 1916, because of a serious lung disease, following the doctors’ insistent advice, N. Roerich together with his family moved to Finland (Serdobol), to the Ladoga Lake coast. Proximity to Petrograd (Saint-Petersburg) allowed him to go from time to time to the city on the Neva river and deal with the Art Encouragement Society School affairs. However, after the revolutionary events of 1917, Finland closed its borders with Russia, and N. Roerich with his family found himself cut off from his Motherland.

In 1919, having received an invitation from Sweden, Nicholas Roerich traveled with exhibitions around Scandinavian countries, and in the fall of the same year, he accepted S. Diagilev’s invitation to work as the designer for Russian operas to the music of M. Mussorgsky and A. Borodin in London, and together with his family went to England.

N. Roerich. Set design sketch for opera “Tristan and Isolde” (fragment). Provided by the A.A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum