.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
When Nikolai Roerich stopped at Ak-Tagh on 2 October 1925, the thirteenth day of his expedition from Leh, Ladakh, to Khotan in Chinese Turkestan, he wrote in his travel diary:
In the frosty morning sun, the snowy Mount Lenin was clearly outlined before our camp. [We] gave this name to the highest peak of the Patos range on our way from [Little] Tibet. The mountain hovers above the crossroads to Karghalik-Yarkend and to Karakash-Khotan...The mountain towers like a cone between the two wings of the white ridge.
The reference to Lenin was a way to appease the regime in Moscow, where he went soon afterwards; Roerich omitted the name in the English version of his diary. In his list of paintings, he refers to the mountain by its local name, Ak-tag. This small yet impressive piece is a classic example of Roerich's ability to capture the grandeur of a vast mountain landscape using only a few lines. The direct, central composition establishes a distance between the viewer and the mountain range, creating an awe-inspiring effect that gives the otherwise small painting a sense of infinite size.
We are grateful to Gvido Trepsa, Senior Researcher at the Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York, for his assistance in cataloguing the present work.
In the frosty morning sun, the snowy Mount Lenin was clearly outlined before our camp. [We] gave this name to the highest peak of the Patos range on our way from [Little] Tibet. The mountain hovers above the crossroads to Karghalik-Yarkend and to Karakash-Khotan...The mountain towers like a cone between the two wings of the white ridge.
The reference to Lenin was a way to appease the regime in Moscow, where he went soon afterwards; Roerich omitted the name in the English version of his diary. In his list of paintings, he refers to the mountain by its local name, Ak-tag. This small yet impressive piece is a classic example of Roerich's ability to capture the grandeur of a vast mountain landscape using only a few lines. The direct, central composition establishes a distance between the viewer and the mountain range, creating an awe-inspiring effect that gives the otherwise small painting a sense of infinite size.
We are grateful to Gvido Trepsa, Senior Researcher at the Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York, for his assistance in cataloguing the present work.