The artwork titled “Baltistan (The border with Ladakh)” by Nicholas Roerich, created in 1936, is a tempera on cardboard painting measuring 30.5 x 46 cm. This piece, belonging to the Symbolism movement, is a landscape genre artwork and is housed at the Nicholas Roerich Museum in New York City, NY, US.
The artwork depicts a serene and expansive landscape of the Baltistan region, capturing the rugged and majestic beauty of the mountains bordering Ladakh. The composition features a range of mountains in shades of purple, orange, and brown, with the peaks enveloped in clouds under a dynamic sky painted in soft hues of blue, gray, and white. The use of tempera on cardboard gives the scene a textured and layered appearance, enhancing the vividness and depth of the landscape. Roerich’s symbolic approach is evident in the mystical and almost dreamlike quality of the mountains, emphasizing their spiritual and timeless essence. The overall effect is a powerful representation of the natural grandeur and tranquil isolation of the region.