Reverie
1922

https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot_details2.aspx?intObjectID=4076624

SALE 1219

Important Silver, Objects of Vertu and Russian Works of Art

New York

11 April 2003

LOT 45

NIKOLAI KONSTANTINOVICH RERIKH [ROERICH] (1874-1947)

Ocean Series: Reverie

Price realised

USD 113,525

Estimate

USD 60,000 - USD 90,000

tempera on canvas

22x33in. (55.9x83.9cm.)

painted in 1922 on Mohegan Island, Maine

Provenance

Roerich Museum, New York

Louis and Nettie Horch

Charles Posusta

LITERATURE

Roerich Corona Mundi International Art Center, (New York, 1924), ill.

Roerich Museum Catalogue, (New York, 1930),p. 17, n. 190

EXHIBITED

Roerich Museum, New York, 1930, n. 190 The Monhegan Museum, Monhegan Island, Maine, July-September 2002

LOT NOTES

Situated ten miles off the coast of Maine, Monhegan Island is renowned for its primeval forests, jagged rock formations, and gritty beaches. Its sublime geography has attracted a community of artists since the 1850's. Remote from civilization and lacking its amenities, the Monhegan art colony drew only the hardiest of painters. The artists who gathered on Monhegan Island painted a diverse array of marine landscapes and quaint village scenes, as well as pictures of boats and docks, rocky crags and austere forests. The island attracted artists many of which lived and worked there, producing a rich and varied body of work of this small island. Such artists attracted by the island included Henri, Bellows, Rockwell Kent, Ida Proper, Jamie Wyeth, and Nicholas Roerich, (who appears to have been the only Russian painter to have worked on the island).

"Nicholas Roerich was fascinated by America, especially Maine, where the rocky shoreline, steep mossy cliffs, and endless expanse of sea and sky reminded him of Finland and his native northern Russian landscape. He spent the summer of 1922 there, on Monhegan Island , and painted a large suite of works, the "Ocean" series. The powerful impact of the rugged Maine coast on him is felt in the spare, bold styles of these canvases." (Decter, J. Nicholas Roerich: The Life and Art of a Russian Master, London, 1989, p. 116)