The gallery exhibits paintings by Russian artist, explorer and peacenik Nicholas Roerich, who once enjoyed cult-like status.
1
The gallery is housed in a villa, which was the residence of Roerich family.
2
Roerich had settled down in Naggar in 1929 after buying The Hall estate and the 18-room villa.
3
Roerich had bought the villa and the estate for Rs 93,000 from Raja of Mandi Joginder Sen.
4
Roerich painted some of his best works on Himalayas in his Naggar villa and in the surrounding mountains.
5
Actress Devika Rani, the first Indian lady of Indian cinema, was married to Roerich’s son Svetoslav Roerich.
6
Devika Rani had also stayed in Naggar and here she would use a palanquin, which was carried by hired local people.
7
Devika Rani was the grandniece of poet Rabindranath Tagore, who also happened to be the friend of Nicholas Roerich.
8
In 1942, Roerichs hosted Jawahar Lal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. They stayed in the villa for a week.
9
An occultist, Roerich had also set up a research institute, called Urusvati or ‘the morning light’ in Naggar with scientist Jagdish Bose on its board of directors.
10
Roerich’s wife Helena claimed herself to be a medium, a séance, with the power to look into the future.
11
Weirdly, in most of her images, clicked in Naggar, Helena is spotted holding an umbrella, like in this one.
12
While in Naggar, Helena, in a highly unusual correspondence, had exchanged series of letters with American president Franklin D Roosevelt in 1934-35.
13
Part of the villa was converted into an art gallery in the 1960s after over a decade of Roerich’s death in Naggar in 1947.
14