Rerikh Nikolay Konstantinovich
Night holiday. Scenery sketch for the opera by ...

Night holiday. Scenery sketch for the opera by N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov "The Snow Maiden".

Year: 1908.
Technique: Mixed media on paper on cardboard.
Size: 17,5х21,4.

Certificate of P.M. Tretiakov Independent Research Examination.

Rerikh Nikolay Konstantinovich (1874-1947)

Artist, writer and philosopher; a legendary man, one of the most striking figures of Russian symbolism and modernism. Born in St. Petersburg 1874 in the family of a notary. In 1891–1893 he took drawing lessons from M.O. Mikeshina. In 1893 he entered St. Petersburg University, where he studied at the Faculty of Law, and at the same time at the Academy of Arts, where he worked in the workshop of A.I. Kuindzhi, who had a great influence on him. He also studied in the studio of F. Cormon in Paris (1900–1901). Before the revolution, he lived mainly in St. Petersburg and traveled a lot. He was a member of the World of Art association (chairman in 1910–1918). At the turn of the century he was studying Slavic and Finno-Ugric antiquities; published several archaeological reports on excavations. He also acted as a master of book and magazine graphics (designing, in particular, the publication of M. Maeterlinck's plays, 1909). At first, not accepting the revolution and expressing his horror at its vandalism in the symbolic drama “Mercy” (1918), the master, finding himself beyond the Finnish border, lived abroad from 1918. In 1920 he moved to the USA, where he and his wife E.I. founded. Shaposhnikova “Agni Yoga Society” to disseminate the teaching of “Living Ethics”, designed to morally improve humanity on the basis of ancient religions, primarily Buddhism, and modern theosophy. Roerich and his wife devoted more and more energy to theosophy, which they understood not only as a mystical, but also as a social movement. Roerich died in Kullu on December 13, 1947. The Roerich Museum was opened in 1924 in New York. In Moscow (in addition to the special department of art of N.N. and S.N. Roerichs in the Museum of Oriental Art), since 1992 there has been an International Center of the Roerichs with its own museum.