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Nicholas Roerich, Russian artist, writer, philosopher, traveler, archaeologist, was born in 1874 in St. Petersburg. From a young age he was fond of painting, archeology and culture of the East.
In 1893, after graduating from the Karl May Gymnasium, Nicholas Roerich entered the Imperial Academy of Arts and the law faculty of St. Petersburg University. At this time, he visited the studio of the artist A. I. Kuindzhi, closely communicated with cultural figures of that time, became a member of the Russian Archaeological Society and began to independently conduct excavations.
After graduating from the Academy in 1897, N. K. Roerich became assistant editor of the magazine "World of Art" and assistant director of the Museum of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts.
In 1903-1904. Roerich, together with his wife Elena Shaposhnikova, made a trip around Russia, in which he visited many cities in order to study ancient Russian culture, as a result of which a large architectural series of his paintings appeared.
In 1906, Roerich became director of the School of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. During his work (until 1918), he expanded the territory of the school, opened new departments, created a museum and a number of workshops at the school. Since 1909 he became a full member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, and in 1910 he headed the art association "World of Art".
From 1923 to 1928, N. K. Roerich led the Central Asian expedition, the path of which ran through the Altai Mountains, where he stopped in the Uimon Valley in the ancient village of Upper Uimon. As an artist, Roerich repeatedly addressed the theme of Altai, depicted it on his canvases, as a scientist he explored its natural potential, as a humanist he predicted its cultural flourishing.
The authorship of Nicholas Roerich owns more than 7,000 paintings, united in thematic cycles and series (Mongolian, Tibetan, Himalayan, monuments of ancient Russian architecture).
In 2004, in the village of Verkh-Uymon, Ust-Koksinsky district of the Altai Republic, the Roerichs Museum-Reserve was opened. In 2009, a monument to Nicholas Roerich was opened on the territory of the Turquoise Katun special economic zone. Also, a peak and a pass in Altai are named in honor of the great artist.
