Nicholas Roerich

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Nicholas Roerich

Nicholas Roerich (originally Russian Николай Константинович Рерих / Nikolai Konstantinovich Roerich ; born September 27 . Jul / 9. October  1874 greg. In Saint Petersburg , † 13 December 1947 in Kullu , India ) was a Russian painter, writer, archaeologist, scientist , Traveler and philosopher. He initiated the Roerich Pact , a forerunner of the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict , and was nominated for the Nobel Prize several times . In his early years he and his wife Helena Roerich founded the theosophical association Agni Yoga (living ethics) on the initiative of their spiritual leaders, the masters of wisdom .

Live and act

Nicholas Roerich with his wife and two sons, in front Svyatoslav

Roerich came from a respected Russian family who had lived in Russia since the time of Peter I. Roerich's father, Constantin Christoph Traugott Glaubert, came from Latvia and was a Baltic German ; the mother, Maria Wassiljewna Kalaschnikowa, from Ostrow . She came from a Tatar- Russian family. In the time of Nicholas II, Nicholas Roerich studied law and art at St. Petersburg University and was respected and successful in artistic circles from an early age. His first work caused a sensation and was acquired by the influential collector Tretyakov . Roerich was introduced to Leo Tolstoy . In addition to painting, he also devoted himself to designing stage sets and costumes, for example in the Simin Opera Theater . In 1901 he married Jelena Ivanovna Shaposhnikova. From 1905 there were intensive artistic relationships with Sergei Djagilew . In 1909 Roerich designed costumes and sets for his theater. He became known to the general public in 1913 when he worked as a librettist and set designer on Igor Fyodorowitsch Stravinsky's ballet “The Spring Consecration” ( Le Sacre du Printemps ) .

The outbreak of the Russian Revolution after 1917 caused him to emigrate with his family via Finland, first to London and then to the USA . 1921 founded the New York Roerich Master Institute of United Arts , which in 1937 during the Great Depression had to stop his work. In 1923 Roerich came to India. From India he made extensive trips to Tibet, China, Siberia and Mongolia. Roerich found a second home in the village of Naggar in the Kullu Valley ( Himachal Pradesh ). He researched the culture of the Himalayan region. The landscapes of the Himalayan Mountains are also an outstanding focus of his late paintings,

He created the frescoes and the famous Jesus mosaic above the entrance to the Holy Spirit Church in the Talaschkino artists' colony near Smolensk .

There are large collections of his works in the Novosibirsk Picture Gallery , the Nizhny Novgorod Art Museum and the Museum of Oriental Art in Moscow. In Moscow and New York , there are each a museum exhibiting his pictures exclusively.

Buddha the Victorious (1925)

Roerich's pictures revolve around three major themes:

  1. the early Russian history (one of the most famous images: The Slavs on the Dnieper ),
  2. Buddhism and Esotericism; Roerich was particularly strongly influenced by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky ,
  3. modern Russia after the Russian Revolution.

Roerich had two sons. The older son Yuri Nikolajewitsch Roerich (1902–1960) became a well-known Asian scholar. The younger Svetoslav Roerich (1904–1993) was a painter and from 1945 married the well-known Indian actress Devika Rani Chaudhary Roerich , a great-niece of Rabindranath Tagore . The couple lived in Bangalore . He was involved in the Urusvati Institute founded by his father to research the history as well as the flora and fauna of the Himalayan region. The house where the family lives above the Raja Palace in Naggar in the Kullu Valley is now a museum.

Processing in the literature

HP Lovecraft refers to images of Roerich in describing landscapes in Berge des Wahnsinns .

In the alternative world novel I'll be here in the sunshine and in the shadow of the Swiss writer Christian Kracht , Roerich appears as a painter of abstract Swiss mountain landscapes.

literature

  • Jacqueline Decter: Nicholas Roerich: Life and Work of a Russian Master . Sphinx, Basel 1989, ISBN 3-85914-639-4
  • Ernst von Waldenfels: Nikolai Roerich: Art, Power and Occultism . Osburg Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 3-940731-71-4

Web links

Commons : Nicholas Roerich  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Roerich, Nicholas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rerich, Nikolai Konstantinowitsch; Рерих, Николай Константинович (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian painter and writer
DATE OF BIRTH October 9, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Petersburg
DATE OF DEATH December 13, 1947
Place of death Kullu , India