Osian's Auction Catalogue Indian Antiquities Modern Contemporary Fine Arts and Books | April 2017

38 Nicholas Roerich 1874-1947 Pilgrim in the Himalayas Tempera and pastel on canvas pasted on board, mid 1930s Artist monogram in cyrillic l.r. 28.5 x 36.4 in (72.4 x 92.4 cm) Provenance Formerly from the Byramji J. & Shirinbai B.Moos Mistry Family Collection, Hyderabad & Mumbai; thereafter inherited by their eldest son Pestonji Byramji Mistry; by descent to his son Cyrus P. Mistry, who worked as the personal assistant to Honourable Justice S.N. Variava during the 1990s before his retirement. Byramji J. Mistry (1851-1938) was in the service of the Nizam of Hyderabad between 1918 & 1929. During the 1920s to 1940s many artworks and antiquities were purchased by the Mistry family towards building their collection. INR 16,000,000 – 24,000,000 USD 238,810 – 358,210 National Art Treasure | Non-Exportable Item Full double-spread image on pp. 70-71 ‘Goetze remarks that Nicholas Roerich was the first Russian representative of that simplified style developed by Manet, Gauguin and Van Gogh which led to a new spatial and atmospheric probability by means of an intensive line and colour which in its turn evoked responses never possible in earlier art. Nicholas Roerich made a deep and intimate study of the rocks and mountains of the inner Himalayas, and his Himalayan landscapes reveal unearthly beauty and grandeur. His colour may appear exaggerated to the people who live in the dusty plains, but those who have had an opportunity of traveling in high altitudes know what brilliant colours can be seen there at dawn and at sunset. Nicholas Roerich is not an ordinary landscape artist. It is nature strained through a fine consciousness, one that we find revealed in his paintings. His mountain pictures have solitary figures of lamas, sadhus or hillmen standing before snow-covered peaks, symbolizing the insignificance of man before the mighty forces of nature. These landscapes are not merely records of places, but a means of recording the sense of grandeur and exaltation which the artist felt looking at these mountains… In the quiet of Naggar, Nicholas Roerich led a creative life, pervaded by spiritual understanding and harmony. Through his paintings he placed the Kulu Valley on the cultural map of the world.’ – M.S. Randhawa rpt. in LKC 18 September 1974; p5. Property formerly from the Collection of Byramji J. & Shirinbai B.Moos Mistry Family Indian Antiquities Modern Contemporary Fine Arts & Books | 81