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10.02.2006.
Nanjunda Rao
Reprint from Lalit Kala Akademi
New Delhi"Nicholas Roerich"
by Nanjunda Rao
Nicholas K. Roerich, the renowned Russian humanist and artist strode the world art scene for over five decades like a colossus. He was a towering personality, saintly in appearance and liberal in outlook, influencing every facet of human life he touched. And his touch extended from arts to archaeology, from history to humanistic studies and to the cause of world peace.
At a time when mankind was beset with economic problems, political uncertainty and spiritual unrest, he stood as a unifying force to lead humanity towards resolving the many differences that separated man from man.
Born in Russia in 1874, Nicholas received training basically as a lawyer and went on to master the disparate aspects of humanities, including the art of painting. He was an alumni of the Soviet Academy of Arts. He enlarged his outlook on art by pursuing his studies in many other academies in Europe and America. At an early age his paintings won him recognition and he was soon referred to as an artist with a message. The paintings were exhibited throughout Europe and America winning for him instant honours from governments and leading art and literary bodies alike.
While only 31, Nicholas became the Director of the Society for Encouragement of Arts, a leading art organisation of that period. His scientific researches in archaeology and history gave him eminence in that field and he carried out extensive excavations in Russia.
He achieved great fame in the Theatre and his stage settings have become classics. From 1920 he held a series of exhibitions the world over and founded numerous societies dedicated to art and culture. Several museums were dedicated to his art. And in spite of his numerous activities, as an organiser and educator, he painted a staggering number of paintings, well over 7,000 besides large frescoes for churches and public buildings.
From India he started his famous Roerich Expedition across Central Asia, which took nearly five years to cover Mongolia, Russia and Tibet. Back in India in 1928 he founded a centre for the study of the Western Himalayas and adjacent regions. While his cultural work throughout the world continued under the guidance of his countless followers, He was a member of half a dozen academies besides being President, Vice-President, Chairman and honorary member of a vast number of cultural institutions and organisations.
Indeed, it is a difficult task to evaluate a great man like Roerich as there are immeasurable phases of his activity. They form an integral, inseparable whole. One may refer to them as multifaceted links of the one lofty, limitless chain.
Roerich's ties with India began from early childhood. His father's estate had the name "Iswara" and nearby was an estate which during the reign of Catherine the Great belonged to an Indian Raja and showed traces of an Indian park.
There was in the family an old painting showing a majestic mountain which Prof. Roerich admired since his childhood. Only afterwards did he discover from a travel-book that it was the famous Kanchenjunga in the Himalayan Range.
Earlier, since 1905 Roerich had dedicated many paintings and essays to India. For instance, paintings "Devasari", "Lakshmi", "Shri Krishna", "Damayanti", "Dreams of India" (series). His early essays on India include "Indian Path", "Gayathri", etc.
In 1923, Prof. Nicholas, his wife Madam Helena Roerich, their sons, Svetoslav, a painter in the class of his father and George, a scientist and archaeologist, came to India. At first they lived near Darjeeling, but later they established the Urusvati Research Institute in the Kulu Valley, where the family still has its residence. Both in the East and West Himalayas, Prof. Roerich has painted a large gallery of pictures that not only reflects the magnificent vision of the hills, but also embodies something of the spiritual history and legend with which they are associated.
In his essay "Tagore and Tolstoy", Roerich remembers with great enthusiasm his first meeting with Tagore. In the same article he recalls that Mme. Roerich's first ties with India were the writings of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda. In the Roerich family "The Bhagavad Gita" and Tagore's "Gitanjali" had a place of honour and accompanied them on all journeys.
Undoubtedly, his archaeological researches into the Stone Age were of great importance to him. They formed the basis of his style and many paintings of his first period have a neolithic grandeur of their own. Accordingly, the ancient man in his paintings is generally a hunter, a fisherman, a builder or a warrior - ever strong in body, tempered in labour and battle. He is always linked with the mystic scene of Russian north.
In "The Messenger", Roerich brings us close to the remotest past, with its hard, austere life. The epic landscape with two lonely people stealing during the night, portends some historic, significant event full of forebodings and mystery.
The later painting "The Slavs", "The Elders are Meeting", "Guests from Beyond the Sea", "Idols", "Building the Ships", reveal the primordial freshness of colour and the heroic strength of the subject matter.
In all these, one can see that Roerich relies upon historic sources: folklore, legends, and ancient monuments. But greater emphasis is placed by him on intuition and the penetration into the spirit of the past. He knows how to perceive and awaken in the landscape. It is remote history, buried in the midst of ages. The vivid hues of the foreground merge into the strong glowing yellows and reds to arrive at strong tonal harmony, ringing joy in the viewer.
Since coming to India Roerich dedicated thousands of paintings to the ethereal beauty of the Himalayas, to the sacred concepts of the ancient wisdom of India. His essays in this context in Indian magazines are well known. Prof. Roerich concludes the chapter on India in his inspiring book Altai Himalaya as follows: "We know thy fragrant essence, India. We know the great Aum which leads to the inexpressible heights. India, we know thy ancient wisdom".
The Modern Review was the first channel in India through which the art of Roerich became known. An inspiring article by Mr. Joseph Finger appeared in 1921 unfolding to the readers the colourful life and magnificent art of the great Russian master.
Eminent artist Bireswar Sen summarised the voice of India when he wrote in The Hindu weekly: "To most of us, Roerich is a legendary figure of romance. Against the wild glare of the flaming West, his mighty figure looms large like the motionless and benevolent Buddha in the midst of a vast cosmic cataclysm. Far above the tumultuous din of frenzied nation rings his voice, the unequivocal commandments of the Eternal, the voice of Truth, Beauty and Culture. Great is Roerich, and greater still are his works, beautiful harbingers of peace and goodwill among men. Indefatigable in action, indomitable in spirit and innocent at heart, he is the new Sir Galahad, seeking after the Holy Grail.
In the Bharat Kala Bhawan, Banares and in the Municipal Museum, Allahabad, special halls have been dedicated to Prof. Roerich. Besides, Roerich's paintings are in the Bose Institute of Calcutta, in the Adyar Museum of Madras, in the collection of Rabindranath Tagore in Santiniketan, in the Sree Chitralayam Gallery of travancore, in the Jagan Mohan Chitrashale of Mysore, Pusa Institute, Delhi; Collections in Hyderabad, Baroda, Indore and other centres of India.
The Banares group containing, among others, the following paintings, are gems so typical of the creativeness of Roerich-"Star of the Hero", "Buddha-the Giver", "Kalki-Avatar", "Bhagwan Sri Ramakrishna". The Allahabad Group includes "The Arhat", "Maitreya" and "She Who Leads". About these paintings O.C. Gangoly, in The Pioneer names Roerich as "The wizard of eastern landscapes", who sublimates realistic senses to the dizzy heights of divine dreamlands. The Bose Institute is adorned by the paintings "Santana", "The Source of Life"; in Madras "The Messenger", and in the Tagore collection "The Ruler". Rabindranath Tagore described the art of Roerich as "It is jealous of its independence because it is great".
J.K. Nag in an article "Roerich-a saint and an artist" in The illustrated India of Calcutta says: "there lives now on the roof of the world a unique figure of charming composition, a genius that had so ardently worshipped beauty, a genius that had so passionately loved art and culture. He is the world famous painter, the great Prof. Nicholas Roerich, a towering personality of this century".
Beside his genius in art, Roerich was an untiring worker for world peace. He dreamt of an international understanding and peace through art and beauty. He says, "Art is to create beauty, through beauty we gain victory, through victory we unite and through beauty we pray."
He incorporated his ideal in the International Pact for the protection of cultural institutions, monuments in times of war and civil commotions, a Pact that came to be known as "The Roerich Pact" and accepted by 35 Nations and signed by 21 Nations including the U.S.A. The emblem of the Pact is the Banner of Peace like the Red Cross, for the protection of cultural treasures of the world. Nicholas Roerich by awakening in the people the reverence and appreciation of the world's cultural treasures, created a new understanding amongst humanity. Thus the Roerich Pact is not an abstract regulation against war, but a method of eliminating in the very consciousness of people the possibilities of hatred and destruction. For, as Roerich himself says: "When the whole earth will be covered by the Banner of Peace, protecting cultural treasures, there will be no field for war."
It is impossible not to admire Roerich. One cannot pass by his precious canvases without experiencing a deep emotion. To see a Roerich picture means to see something new, something you have never seen anywhere, not even among Roerich's own works.
Nicholas Roerich has no home, no date, no Nation; he belongs to no Nation or epoch. So do the great Chinese art works. They belong to all times and climes. For, every artist, every poet, every philosopher is primarily a priest-his vocation is Holy, Holy, Holy. He leads mankind and we follow him. They are timeless, as is Beauty. They have many facets, all reflecting the supreme.
Nicholas Roerich is the representative of that divine inspiration-what does it matter whether he is alive or dead? He is a messenger from the Hierarchy itself, revealing that in beauty all virtues are combined. No man with an evil thought can create, not unless he is seared by the fire, unless all the selfish and ordinary intiutions are removed from his being. When such a divine searing by fire takes place, there results a Michael angelo, a Leonardo, a Hokusai, a Nicholas Roerich.
When the world's first astronaut Yuri Gagarin was asked by the late Smt Indira Gandhi as to how the world looked like from the outer space, the Russian astronaut remarked, "It appeared I ike a Roerich Painting".
As his equally illustrious son, Dr. Svetoslav Roerich recounts, Prof. Roerich was a disciplinarian to the core. He followed a rigid routine, which he would never alter under any circumstance. Early to rise, and after a constitutional, take a bath and breakfast. Without wasting time, he would sit at painting or writing. He was equally particular about having lunch at 1 p.m. exactly. His day would end with a walk in the evening.
The versatile professor was known for a special aptitude for distinguishing precious stones, especially the diamond. There can't be a better way to end this brief sketch than to quote Dr. Svetoslav:
"Father was a great philosopher, a constant seeker after truth. Those aspects of his life were the permanent beacons of all his creative activities. Whatever he did, whatever he has accomplished, has always been closely inter-linked with his own inner attitude. His writings, like his paintings, reflect that constant inner search and realisation".
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