Nikolai Konstantinovich Roerich (Russian, 187... Lot n° 39

Old Chapel in Valdai County, Titled [in Cyrillic] "Watchtower in Pskov" on original Louisiana Purchase Exposition label verso, oil on panel 12 x 16 in. (30.5 x 40.6cm) Executed in 1903.Private Collection, California. EXHBITED: "The Louisiana Purchase Exposition" (also known as the "Saint Louis World's Fair"), Saint Louis, Missouri, April 30-December 1, 1904, no. 65 (per original label verso). NOTE: Nicholas Roerich is a towering figure in Russian painting of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During his storied career, he was also an archaeologist, poet, lawyer, and philosopher who widely travelled-living in his native Russia, Finland, England, India, and America. He also achieved fame as a theater set designer, was a devout follower of mysticism, and was an ardent advocate for the preservation of cultural heritage, objects, institutions, and monuments. Begun as a private initiative, he is credited with developing proposals establishing what became known as the 'Roerich Pact:' an inter-American treaty signed into law in 1935 to protect cultural property in times of war. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia to an upper middle class family, Roerich showed an early aptitude for drawing and enrolled in the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1893. He later directed the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. Considered a Russian Symbolist, he studied with the landscape painter Arkhip Kuindzhi. Said to have executed over seven thousand works during his lifetime, he was inspired by "historic sources: folklore, legends, and ancient monuments. But greater emphasis is placed by him on intuition and the penetration into the spirit of the Past" (M.S. Nanjunda Rao, Nicolas Roerich, New Delhi, 1992). In Russia, Roerich completed monumental paintings, church mosaics and frescoes. In 1903, when the present work was painted, Roerich and his wife Helena embarked on a forty city tour of ancient Russian cities. As noted in Nicholas Roerich, A