“Bogdo-Ul. Hurricane” is a landscape artwork by Nicholas Roerich, a Russian painter and philosopher, created in 1927. The work, executed in tempera on canvas, embodies the principles of Symbolism, a movement that sought to convey ideas through symbols and an emotive use of color and form. Measuring 30.5 by 40 cm, the artwork portrays a landscape that is presumably charged with symbolic meaning.
The artwork presents a serene yet sobering mountain landscape, where the titular hurricane is implied rather than overtly depicted. The dominance of muted colors conveys a sense of stillness before the force of nature unleashes. The foreground is minimally detailed, allowing the viewer’s focus to gravitate towards the mountain forms that rise in the middle ground, their outlines softened by what appears to be either mist or the onset of the tempest. Sky and earth are rendered in a limited palette, creating a flatness that lends the composition a meditative, almost mystical quality, in line with Roerich’s interest in spirituality and the unseen dimensions of the natural world. There is a suggestion of movement and dynamism, despite the overall calmness of the composition, indicating that this visual representation may be an ellipsis of a moment — the quiet that proverbially comes before the storm.
