Nicholas Roerich, painter, poet

Study of Clouds. c. 1936–47

Born in Russia, Nicholas Roerich was a Renaissance man who lived from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. He was an accomplished painter, archaeologist, scientist, teacher, explorer. Roerich traveled to India and to the Himalayas where he learned from the religions of the area.

Roerich also wrote poems:
"Brother, let us abandon
all that rapidly changes.
Otherwise we will not have time
to turn our thoughts to that
which is changeless for all.
To the eternal."

Irina Corten writes about him: “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 ...”

I think the knowledge of life-cycles and Soul shows in his art.

Kanchenjunga. 1936

Mount of Five Treasures (Two Worlds), from “Holy Mountains” series. 1933

Milarepa, the One Who Harkened, from “Banners of the East” series. 1925