On October 9, a souvenir sheet dedicated to the 150th Birth Anniversary of painter Nikolai Roerich was put into postal circulation

Nikolai Roerich (1874-1947) was a Russian painter, a scenographer, a mystical philosopher, a writer, a traveler, an archaeologist and a public figure. He was an Academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1909); the author of the Roerich Pact, the founder of international cultural movements Peace through Culture and the Banner of Peace. He created about 7 thousand paintings and 30 volumes of literary works.

Nikolai Roerich was born on September 27 (October 9), 1874, in St. Petersburg. In 1897, he graduated from the Higher Art School of the Imperial Academy of Arts, and a year later from the St. Petersburg University. In 1903, he went on a grand journey across Russia, which gave birth to a whole series of paintings: The Beginning of Russia. Slavs. In art workshops, he created sketches for mosaics and paintings in ancient techniques. One of the most famous works is the decoration in the Holy Spirit Church in Talashkino.

Roerich created mosaics and murals for churches, train stations and houses. He illustrated opera, ballet and drama theatricals, and as a master of book and magazine graphics, decorated various editions.

In 1920, at the invitation of the Director of the Art Institute of Chicago, Nikolai Roerich and his family moved to the USA. In America, he organized a three-year exhibition tour through 30 cities. In 1923, he went to France, and then to India, where he arranged a large-scale Central Asian expedition. After the trip, the couple founded the Institute of Himalayan Studies in New York, and then the Urusvati Institute in the Himalayas, in the Kullu Valley.

From the end of 1935, N. Roerich lived permanently in India. He painted more than a thousand paintings over 12 years. In India, he painted his series Shambhala, Genghis Khan, Kuluta, Kulu, Holy Mountains, Tibet, Ashrams. During the Second World War, he again turned in his art to the theme of the Motherland and created a number of paintings using images of Russian history, such as: Igor's Campaign, Alexander Nevsky, Partisans, Victory, The Bogatyrs are Awake.

The postage stamp provides an image of painting Rooks by Nikolai Roerich (1903, State Museum of Oriental Art); the margins of the souvenir sheet feature painting Portrait of N.K. Roerich by S.N. Roerich (1928, State Museum of Oriental Art).

In addition to the issue of the souvenir sheet, JSC Marka produced First Day Covers and special cancels for Moscow, St. Petersburg, Barnaul and Novosibirsk as well as illustrated covers for the souvenir sheet with a label and a First Day Cover with a cancel for Moscow inside; and for the second emission type: an imperforated souvenir sheet made on canvas-type design paper.


Design Artist: O. Savina.
Face value: 200 rubles.
Souvenir sheet size: 124×88 mm; stamp size in the souvenir sheet: 50×42 mm.
Quantity: 17 thousand souvenir sheets (the 1-st emission type); 3.6 thousand souvenir sheets (the 2-nd emission type*).
*To be on sale as part of an illustrated cover.

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