Roerich Pact - Nicholas Roerich

Nicholas Roerich

Russian painter and philosopher Nicholas Roerich (1874–1947) initiated the modern movement for the defense of cultural objects, for the idea of “Peace of Civilizations”. Besides the recognition as one of the greatest Russian painters, Roerich’s most notable achievement during his lifetime was the Roerich Pact signed on April 15, 1935 by the representatives of American states in the Oval Office of the White House (Washington, DC). It was the first international treaty signed in the Oval Office where Presidents of US are working until present days because Franklin D. Roosevelt had relocated the US presidential office in the White House. Incidentally, Roosevelt kept in his private rooms a bust of Roerich.

Nicholas Roerich was born on October 9, 1874, in St. Petersburg. His parents encouraged him to study law, but seeing their son’s inclination for painting, they allowed him to study both, which he did with much success. In 1900, Roerich went to Paris to take lessons from Fernand Cormon, the well known tutor of Van Gogh and Toulouse Lautrec. Upon his return to St. Petersburg, he married Helena Shaposhnikova, who later developed the Agni Yoga philosophy. Soon Roerich became quite a successful painter. One of his paintings was purchased by Russian Tsar Nicolas II himself. Roerich also worked as stage and costume designer for several operas and ballets by Maurice Maeterlinck and Igor Stravinsky, premiered in St. Petersburg.

In 1917 Roerich went to live near a lake in Finland, to strengthen his health. After the border between Russia and Finland was closed in 1918, the family travelled across several Scandinavian countries to Great Britain and eventually left for North America in 1920. There, Roerich founded two cultural institutions: “Cor Ardens” (Flaming Heart, a fraternity of artists from several countries) and “The Master Institute of United Arts” (an organization for education, science, and philosophy).

In 1923, the Roerich Museum was founded in New York. In 1929, it moved to a new building. Presently, the Roerich Museumis located in Manhattan, at the corner of 107th Street and Riverside Drive. After leaving America, the Roerich had settled down in the Kulu Valley at the bottom of the Himalayas where they established the Urusvati Institute. Nicholas Roerich died of a cardiac arrest on December 13, 1947.