“Dragging portage,” a genre painting by Nicholas Roerich, was crafted in 1915 using tempera on canvas. The artwork, which is part of the Art Nouveau (Modern) and Symbolism movements, is housed at the Nicholas Roerich Museum in New York City, NY, US.
The artwork depicts a group of figures dressed in white garments, laboriously dragging Viking-style boats on a rugged landscape. These boats, characterized by their dragon-headed prows, are being transported overland towards a serene body of water that lies between majestic mountains. The scene is set against a backdrop of a tranquil sky that transitions from a gentle yellow to a calming blue, indicating a time of either dawn or dusk. The composition encapsulates a sense of historical voyage and communal effort, imbued with an ethereal and mythic quality typical of Roerich’s works. The naturalistic details of the terrain, coupled with the symbolic undertones, evoke a narrative of perseverance and unity within the human endeavor.
