Himalayan Landscapes by Nicholas Roerich are a dime a dozen, which of course is a figure of speech because they are actually worth millions of dollars.

Inspired by his travels, Roerich painted, painted, painted and painted some more. His body of work amounts to over seven thousand paintings and they are all inspired by his passion for the East. But before he debuted any of his works, he insisted upon first showing them to his wife Helena, who was his “inspirer” and “friendess.” The two of them were relationship goals incarnate because of their equality even in the early 1900s. Found among Helena’s letters was her view on equality between men and women: “…woman should realize that she herself contains all forces, and the moment she shakes off the age-old hypnosis of her seemingly lawful subjugation and mental inferiority and occupies herself with a manifold education, she will create in collaboration with man a new and better world.” And Nicholas Roerich was completely on board!

And obviously Helena approved of this painting that made it into the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi with its dramatic depiction of a mountain in the Himalayas (not Mt. Everest). This painting might be an unintentional advertisement for tourism in the East because of how the mountain here just calls your name. If you listen closely it whispers, “Suuuusannnn, you know you want to freeze your ass off here. Come to meeeeee.” If you aren’t searching flights to India/Nepal right now, then you clearly aren’t looking at the painting closely enough.