NICHOLAS ROERICH’S “ARCHITECTURAL SKETCHES” OF PSKOV

We feel affection for the area of and around Pskov for many reasons. This is where many generations of my grandmother Tatiana Ivanovna Korkunova-Kalashnikova’s family lived. These family names have been connected with Pskov since time immemorial. One of my first archaeological ventures took place in the Pskov region as well. And these areas around Pskov possess real beauty and a wealth of old settlements.

Nicholas Roerich. “Pskov”. 1939

“Architectural Sketches” is too modest and, therefore, inaccurate a title for the diverse and majestic spectacle of our nation’s ancient landmarks captured on canvas with the wide, fresh brushstrokes that create such captivating condensed imagery and renders so finely that soft, serene calmness and light that are the memorable feature of all old Russian landmark buildings and paintings. This suite could well be named “A Pantheon of Our Past Glory,” “Russia’s Elysium”... Roerich’s pilgrimage began in May 1903 and ended in September (to be resumed the following summer), spanning through Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Vladimir, Suzdal, Yuryev-Polsky, Rostov Veliky, Moscow, Smolensk, Wilno, Troki, Grodno, Kovno, Mitau, Riga, Wenden, Izborsk, Pechory, Pskov, Tver, Uglich, Kalyazin, Valdai and Zvenigorod. Conceptually, the route Pskov, Pechory, Izborsk lay on, which, on the one hand, "grew along the great road, soaking up the best of Hanseatic culture”, and, on the other, was the phantasmagoria of “colourful”, “Moscow-style” Yaroslavl and Rostov Veliky, with Vladimir and Yuryev-Polsky, in the middle, whose art tells the story of Roman influences in Rus.

Sergei Ernst. “Nicholas Roerich”. 1916

But are we the sort of people who look for beauty? We are so lazy and incurious that we are barely familiar even with Pskov - a beautiful town on our doorstep. Nobody feels a desire to sit by the Velikaya River in front of the visage of the grey Detinets fortification; for how many people does the name of the Mirozhsky Monastery ring a bell - a site which is worth a visit, if only to take a look at the frescoes of the Saviour and the Archangel in its side-altars? The old-time towers, the market near the Detinets walls, the sails and multi-coloured masts of merchant boats - all this is so beautiful, so close to the capital. How pretty the old-time little homes are, with their small stylish windows and porches, the homes that are now used for the most prosaic undertakings, serving as furniture storage or warehouses. And how little do the masses know - with our sour faces as if from no new sights to see. Considering how little we know Pskov, how many of us have visited that wonderful place near Pskov - Pechory? That this hideaway is so poorly known is so bewildering. With its cosiness, age-old tranquillity, and arresting buildings, there are few places in the entire heartland of Rus that can match this one. The walls beaten by Lithuanians run down into deep ravines and gamely stride along the steep slopes. Its 17th-century churches, wooden passages along the wall, bell towers - all this, fitting together so compactly, looks strikingly all of a piece.

Nicholas Roerich. “Along the Old Times”. 1903