From 9 October to 8 November 2004 Izvara estate-museum held a jubilee exhibition of paintings created by a great Russian painter and humanist Nicolas Roerich, which was called 'Message of Beauty'. This exhibition was dedicated to the 130th anniversary of the painter, the 100th anniversary of Svyatoslav Roerich and the 20th anniversary of the Roerich's Estate Museum in Izvara.
It was deeply symbolic that the paintings created in India were exposed in the ancient Izvara estate belonging to the Roerichs family. It was here, in the 'family nest' that during his childhood Nicolas Roerich saw Kangchenjunga – a sacred Himalayan mountain for the first time on an ancient paining. 'Since my childhood there was a trace of connection with India, – Roerich wrote, – Tagore believed that the name of our estate in Izvara was a Sanskrit word. In Catherine's time a certain Hindu Rajah resided in the neighbourhood…'
For the first time people from St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region could see 62 paintings from the 'Himalaya' series belonging to the collection of International Roerich Centre (Moscow) – a public organization, that possesses a status of an associated member of non-governmental organization under the UN. The centre was created at the initiative of an eminent Russian painter Svyatoslav Nikolayevich Roerich, the youngest son of Nicolas Roerich, based on the paintings, exhibits and archives donated by himself.
Visitors to the exhibition
The opening of the exhibition was attended by the Head of the Committee for Culture of the Leningrad Region Government Mr. V. Bogush, the Consul General of the Indian Republic Mr. Ashok K. Sharma, Vice-Consul of Sweden Mr. Martin Hagström, as well as representatives of the Union of Scientists, journalists from St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region.
Among the extremely diverse art of Nicolas Roerich, who painted more than 7000 works, theatrical backgrounds, frescoes sketches and mosaics, the 'Himalaya' series holds a special rank. 'The second part of his life was closely connected with India, and he was rightfully called the Master of the Mountains', – wrote Svyatoslav Roerich about his father. Nicolas Konstantinovich created a unique panorama of a great mountainous country. When the painter was asked 'What is behind your attraction to the Himalayas?' his answer was: 'It is an attraction to grandeur that feeds the Spirit'.
In his paintings for the first time in art history Roerich managed to create an image of the Himalayas as one of the most unusual places on Earth where each moment a new combination of colour and lines is created, and as one of the most mysterious places on the planet full of multiple enigmas. The colours blazing on Roerich's paintings are rich in remarkable hues, they are bright, variegated, unusual. It was not by chance that the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin looking at our Earth from the outer space wrote in his log: 'An indescribable range of colours! Like the painting of Nicolas Roerich'.
The exhibition 'Message of Beauty' – a joint project of N. Roerich Estate Museum and the International Centre of the Roerichs organized with support of the Committee for Culture of the Leningrad Region Government, state cultural organization 'Museum Agency', ООО 'Ayurveda Plus' (St. Petersburg), ООО 'Avtorisatsiya' (St. Petersburg), ООО "Haven" (St. Petersburg), St. Petersburg branch of the International Centre of the Roerichs, Master-Bank (Moscow), Deputy Head of Leningrad Region Government Mr. V. N. Stepanov and publishing house 'Svyatoslav'.
Over the period of one month the exhibition was visited by 3500 people from St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region. Due to the big number of visitors the Estate Museum worked for the whole month without closing for days-off.
