ROERICH, Nicholas (Nikolaj Konstantinovič Rërih). St.Petersburg 9.10.1874 — Naggar, Himachal Pradesh 1.3.1948. Russian Painter, lay Archaeologist, Theosophist and Central Asian Traveller. Father of —> G. N. Roerich and Svjatoslav Roerich (Svetoslav, 1904–1993, painter in India). Studied art and law in St.Peterburg, worked as a much appreciated artist and art teacher there. After marriage became interested in Asian religions and Theosophy. After the revolution he first tried collaboration, but soon (1918) emigrated with his family to Finland and next year via London to the U.S.A. After some years in New York went to India to start the Roerich Expedition. Extensive travels in 1925-28 in Central Asia, beside scientific (and suspected political) he had here utopian religious motives. Except the Manchurian expedition in 1934-35 he spent the rest of his life in India, preparing a famous series of paintings of the Himalayas. Married 1901 Elena Ivanovna Šapošnikova (1879–1955). Much of his art is housed in the Nicholay Roerich Museum in New York.
Publications: Travel accounts; writings on art.
Sources: *A. Andreyev, The Myth of the Masters Revived: The Occult Lives of Nicholas and Elena Roerich. 30+502 p. Leiden – London 2014; Wikipedia with further references and several photos and illustrations of his paintings; drawing in Canada-Mongolia Review 5, 1979.
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