Artist of the week: Nicholas Roerich
ARTinvestment.RU   17 июня 2013

Held in London's Russian week brought us several personal records. One of the biggest upsets was the sale of paintings by Nicholas Roerich "Madonna Laboris (Proceedings of the mother of God)"

Held in the London's Russian week brought us several personal records. For the top authors for the price it was sold paintings I. I. Shishkin, A. D. Drevin, I. I. Mashkov, however, one of the biggest upsets was the sale of paintings Nicholas Roerich "Madonna Laboris (Proceedings of the mother of God)". During the auction the auction house Bonhams because it has been given 7 880 000 lbs — more than $ 12 million. Thus, the "Madonna Laboris (Proceedings of the mother of God)" now ranked first in the ranking of the most expensive works of Roerich and the ranking of the most expensive works sold within the specialized Russian auction of the world's leading auctions for Russian artists in General. In the ranking of the most expensive paintings of Russian artists "Madonna Laboris (Proceedings of the mother of God)" is located on the 7th-м place.

Nicholas Konstantinovich Roerich was born October 9, 1874 in St.-Петербурге. The father of the future artist — is known to the notary Konstantin Roerich was spinning at the very top of the then capital companies among its clients and guests of the house were D. I. Mendeleev, painter and sculptor M. O. Mikeshin, many other prominent figures of science and art. And of course, great attention was paid to the family of the cultural education of children, introducing them to the world of art from a very early age. Children (Nicholas had a sister Lydia and two brothers — Boris and Vladimir) took an active part in the construction and registration of home productions, took them to concerts, to the theater, they were listening to adult conversations about culture, about art@the semicolon there is therefore nothing surprising in the fact that drawing Nicholas became interested quite early.

the Second passion of the young Nicholas Roerich was the story: it is known that the family spent summers in the estate of Izvara, 100 km from St. Petersburg. The estate that arose on the site of an old Novgorod settlement XII — XV centuries, was for Roerich an inexhaustible source of examples of Russian antiquity, began his classes in archaeology that are constantly fueled his interest in history.

In 1883, the 9-летний Nicholas Roerich were identified in the gymnasium of K. I. May. Favorite subject in school was history, he intended to study it further, but at the same time wanted to and art education. Remember that are seriously interested in drawing Roerich 11-12, his first drawings were inspired by the Izvara, they were mostly landscapes, sketches of plants and birds. In a letter to Nicholas Roerich himself calls the date of the beginning of serious painting in 1891 (by the way, this portrait dates from the year N. Gogol) — when he began taking lessons from artist M. O. Mikeshin and mosaic artist I. I. Kudrin. However, despite all the apparent desireson to art, Roerich-старший insisted on getting Nicholas of legal education: as the first son in the family, he had to continue the family business. As a result, in 1893, Roerich simultaneously entered the law faculty of the Saint-Петербургского University (student) and the Academy of fine Arts (a volunteer at the Higher art school), he was already attending lectures at the historical-филологическом faculty of the University. Remember that often Roerich flew straight into workshops in the form of the law faculty, not finding the time to change. And it's true — he succeeded everywhere. It was praised at the law faculty, and he was very lucky at the Academy of fine arts: he got into the Studio to A. I. Kuindzhi, whose manner of teaching and writing, and General artistic quest responded to the growing talent of the young artist. Roerich's degree work (he graduated from the Academy in 1897-м) — historical painting "the Messenger. Rebelled rod to rod" — was so successful that it for his collection were acquired by P. M. Tretyakov. A love of history, law, and art did not go hand in hand, or worse, at odds in the heart of Roerich, but rather fruitfully combined. A year later, after obtaining the academic diploma, he graduated from the University, wrote a paper on "the Legal status of artists in Ancient Rus".

Upon graduation, Roerich began to work in the magazine "Art and art industry", where he wrote art criticism article. In 1899, the paintings of Roerich "meet the elders" and the "Campaign" has attracted the attention of one of the most famous art connoisseurs of the time — Sergei Diaghilev, who invited Roerich to participate in the exhibition "World of art". In the same year, Roerich met Helena Ivanovna Shaposhnikova, his future wife (they married in 1901) and mother of his sons — George (1902-1960, scientist-востоковед) and Sviatoslav (1904-1993, artist).

in the Summer of 1900 his father died the artist K. F. Roerich, and fall on his inheritance, Nicholas went to Paris, visiting on the way all the major museums and getting acquainted with the work of European artists. In Paris in 1900-1901, he took lessons in the Studio of F. Cormon, and so was interested in the work of Puvis de Chavannes, called him his second teacher after Kuindzhi. On the way back from France to Russia, he has visited, among other countries, Italy, where he studied the works of old masters.

Roerich generally loved to travel. New experiences gleaned along the way, supported his creative vitality and allow deeper dive into the atmosphere of history and culture of other countries, peoples, and ages. With the years, his interest in Russian history and culture, not weakened, eclipsed by many other knowledge and experience, but rather increased. In 1903/1904 the years of the Roerich couple embarked on an epic journey, visiting nearly 40 ancient cities@the semicolon impressions from that trip resulted in a series of historical paintings,dedicated to the life and culture of Ancient Russia. (Immediately upon return and then for many years Roerich, shocked by what he saw, in his articles and speeches talked about the need to protect ancient monuments; subsequently his ideas were embodied in the Roerich Pact — "Treaty on the protection of artistic and scientific institutions and historic monuments", adopted in 1935.) To this period belong the artist's works on spiritual subjects, executed in the form of frescoes and mosaics sketches for churches and temples. In addition to complete things from the trip, he brought a lot of sketches of temples and fortresses, and under his brush, these structures seem to grow out of the ground, becoming just as vibrant and natural members of the landscape as the surrounding trees. Roerich even called the founder of the historical landscape: in his works, he recreated not an event, but the atmosphere of the time. With time on changing the architecture in his landscapes come the mountains, but the spirit of history and eternity in them not just continue, but get stronger and become a hallmark of the artist.

Roerich Interesting experiments with the technique. Since 1901 he often paints with gouache, uses pastel, 1906-го many works in tempera, and after 1919-го stops using oil altogether, believing it to be too dark and heavy, not suitable for the purposes, and prefers bright transparent colors of tempera and gouache. Roerich prefer a clean contrasting colors that he puts in layers. He refers to the carcass (up to 1920-х), and watercolors (before 1930-х), a sketch for the majolica frieze. Since 1910, he signed his paintings with the initials NK.

Roerich was engaged in easel painting, graphics and decorative-прикладным art, and worked as a theater artist. In 1905 he prepared sketches for the production of "Devasari Ubuntu" (not implemented), and later rejected the request of the Directorate of the Imperial theaters in the sketch of "Ivan the terrible", and in 1907-м the audience saw the first performance in its decoration — "Three wise men" ("Magician"). During the famous "Russian seasons" Diaghilev in the scenery Roerich was the scene of "Polovtsian camp" from the Opera "Prince Igor" by A. Borodin, Opera "the maid of Pskov" N. Rimsky-Корсакова, the ballet "the rite of Spring" to music by Stravinsky and others.

Another touch to the portrait of Roerich — his public activities and numerous leadership positions that he has held in various Russian art institutions. So, in 1906 he took charge of the School society for the encouragement of arts in St. Petersburg, where he reorganized the workshops and attracted as teachers V.Mate, Ivan Bilibin, J. F. Tsionglinskogo and other famous artists. In 1910-м was elected Chairman of the revived "World of art", and later to raise the level of art auctions in Russia have created and headed the Commission, one of whose main aims was to prevent the sale of fakes.

Revolution of 1917, Roerich in Finland, so he has not experienced the hardships that befell those wishing to leave Russia. Another trip around the world Roerich began in 1919, going to exhibitions in Scandinavia, then London, where he briefly resumed collaboration with Diaghilev. And in 1920-м settled in the United States, sending a major exhibition (over a hundred) of his work to tour the country.

In America, however, Roerich soon became famous for its cultural-просветительской activities. According to some accounts, the interest in his paintings exhibited in the main adherents of his philosophical ideas. So, Igor Grabar, in 1924, visited the United States, notes that "none of the American museums of works of Roerich saw" and that "the inquiries, it turned out that all of Roerich's paintings were taken by a "cartridge"-богачом as collateral for a loan issued to him".

the First expedition to India Roerich took — did not let difficulties with money and documents. Finally, in 1923, leaving the place. In India, he conducted extensive archaeological and ethnographic research, simultaneously drawing inspiration for their next work. By the way, actually India that trip is not limited to, the route passed through the territories of China, Russia, Mongolia, and Tibet. After the expedition to work with the accumulated material in 1928 in the Kullu valley was organized by the Institute of Himalayan studies. In their further travels and later life in Asia Roerich enthusiastically studied Indian, Ceylon, Japanese, Tibetan and Chinese art, adopting even some of the compositional features of Oriental scenery (mostly this is reflected in the construction plans and working with chiaroscuro).

In 1920-40-х years (from 1930-го until his death in 1947, Roerich lived in India) he worked a lot and successfully, created a few episodes each of which contained up to several dozen paintings — for example, the series "Himalaya" includes 39 works. Creative heritage of Nicholas Roerich has up to seven thousand pieces — for the most part monumentaleasel paintings, mainly landscapes, executed in tempera or in graphic techniques, with a few (mostly early) with references to the historical and spiritual genre. Changing themes is Roerich rather cyclical in nature — for example, in his early work it is possible to allocate a pagan, then mythological, and epic cycles; in Russian and condici periods of the characters in his paintings the spiritual genre was Christian, and in India they were replaced by non-Christian ascetics.

mark in the art not only left Roerich-живописец, but Roerich-собиратель: one of his many Hobbies was collecting old European paintings (mostly — small Dutch). In 1921, his collection of 215 items came to the Hermitage, and then was distributed to many museums. In addition to European painting, the couple Roerich belonged to the extensive collection of Japanese and Chinese works of art (thousands of originals, about 20 thousand of reproduced images), which later became the basis of the exposition of the State Museum of the East.

Most of the creative heritage of Nicholas Roerich dispersed to museums of Russia and the world, but his work and meet at auctions — Russian and international. Interest art-рынка to his work in recent years has been steadily increasing, the peak was October and November 2008, and in 2013, according to the index ARTMX on 03.06.2013, the yield of the artist showed a continuous growth of 79,83 %.

In database artinvestment.ru recorded more than 300 of his works, 213 of which — painting. Top price on them a week ago, was located in the range of 1-1. 7 million pounds, but with the recent record prices that were significantly above this range (it is possible that this is the first step to a new price level), the three most expensive works of Roerich looks like this:

  1. "Madonna Laboris (Proceedings of the mother of God)". 7 881 250 pounds. 5 Jun 2013. Bonhams.
  2. Historical painting "He came" (1920). 1 756 500 pounds. 26 November 2007. Sotheby's.
  3. "Lao-Цзы". 1 950 000$. 26 April 2006. Sotheby's.

By the way, one of the landscapes Roerich 1920-х from the series "Ladoga" is available in the catalog tomorrow, June 18 the auction the auction house "Cabinet", so that all stakeholders have the opportunity to purchase his collection work of this master.

Sources:

  1. I. Grabar. My Life. Sketches of the artists. Publishing-во "Republic", 2001.
  2. roerih.ru
  3. roerich-encyclopedia.facets.ru
  4. icr.su
  5. roerich-izvara.ru
  6. artinvestment.ru



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ARTIMX
13/07
1502.83
+4,31%
ARTIMX-RUS
13/07
1502.83
+4,31%
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