About
Nicholas Roerich |
Nikolai Roerich (1874-1947) was a Russian
painter who traveled through Tibet in the 1920's painting the Himalayan
mountains. His works can be seen at the Roerich Musem in New York City
where Lovecraft saw them. They would have a profound effect on Lovecraft's
"At the Mountains of Madness."
Professor Dyer, the author of "At the Mountains
of Madness" writes of the great barren peaks of Antarctica, "Something
about the scene reminded me of the strange and disturbing Asian paintings
of Nicholas Roerich, and of the still stranger and more disturbing descriptions
of the evilly fabled plateau of Leng which occur in the dreaded Necronomicon
of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred."
From a radio message from Professor Lake: "Odd
formations on slopes of highest mountains. Great low square blocks with
exactly vertical sides, and rectangular lines of low, vertical ramparts,
like the old Asian castles clinging to steep mountains in Roerich's paintings.
Flew close to some, and Carroll thought they were formed of smaller pieces,
but that is probably weathering. Most edges crumbled and rounded off as
if exposed to storms and climate for millions of years." |
