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Lot Essay
Balke was one of the first artists to venture to the vast, untrodden plains of the North Cape. He visited only once, aged 28 in 1832, but the experience became a touchstone of his imagination for the rest of his life. Almost nothing survives of Balke’s 1832 journey except for a few pencil sketches. Nevertheless, “Henceforth, Balke and his art would be associated with that desolate and hostile realm, as Eugène Delacroix was with North Africa or, later, Paul Gauguin with Tahiti. It would provide him with motifs for his entire painting career, both public and private. It would set him apart’ (C. Riopelle, Paintings by Peder Balke, exh. cat., London 2014, p. 59).
Overwhelmed by the opulent beauty of nature and the dramatic locations, this voyage was of central importance to his artistic development. His subsequent landscapes draw their inspiration from the scenery which he witnessed during this trip. As one of the first artists to travel in this region - when it was thought to be the northernmost point in Europe - his oeuvre would explore recurrent motifs whilst forming a testament to his unique observations.
Balke’s paintings are infused with a magical light inspired by the midnight sun. The power and dramatic quality of his compositions reflects his first-hand experience of extreme weather conditions which he described as 'an impression that did not merely overwhelm me in the violence of the moment but was to exert a decisive influence on my entire later life [...] for in these northerly parts it is the beauties of nature that play the central role whereas nature's living children, human beings, merely occupy a position subordinate to them’ (Buchhardt in Peder Balke. Ein Pionier der Moderne, exh. cat., 2008). Such dramatic scenery can be witnessed in Seascape, 1849 (Nationalmuseum, Stockholm), where the sea surges against a steadfast lighthouse and birds are sent into a frenzy. Viewing Fra Nordkapp alongside his stormy scenes accentuates the extreme calmness of the scene. The potential powerful surges of nature are present, but restrained.
The daylight view, The North Cape, 1845 (oil on canvas, 37 3⁄8 x 52 in., The Savings Bank Foundation DNB, Norway) is one of Balke’s largest easel paintings, and considered amongst the most accomplished and sophisticated works he made in the descriptive, naturalistic vein of his contemporaries Johan Christian Dahl (1788-1857) and Thomas Fearnley (1802-1842). Three years later, in 1848, he visited Dahl in Dresden and painted essentially the same view on an even larger canvas, this time as a night scene, in The North Cape in Moonlight (Peder Balke, North Cape in Moonlight, oil on canvas, 40 ¼ x 55 in., Private collection) and in the same year painted The North Cape by Moonlight (24 7⁄16 x 337⁄18 in., MET Museum, New York, fig. 1). By 1852 Balke had returned to Norway after his extensive travels in London and Paris, where King Louis-Philippe had acquired 30 of his paintings. This was a period of confidence and maturity in his brushwork and an indication towards his more abstract rendering of the Northern Cape. The present lot is a confident return to his 1848 composition. When executing this 1853 painting, Balke made small changes, such as the positioning of the boats, but larger changes in his treatment of the light. The clouds have slightly parted and the awe-inspiring moon shines brighter. In response, the boats to the right of the composition are cast into shadow, and the moon, nature, dominates human activity. This could be only moments after the inspiration for the 1848 paintings, but it tells an entirely new story.
By the time Balke executed this work, dated 1853, the North Cape had become a signature image. He employed his materials cannily: the smooth paper support is well suited to the flatly applied, gradated tones of the sky, which is clear, save for the quickly worked clouds that form a dome with the moon as its keystone. The cape’s massif appears as a single broad horizontal stroke of dark grey paint, with visible brush marks that contribute a subtle note of texture. This restraint was abandoned through the use of bolder impasto for the snowy crags and the surface of the water.
Overwhelmed by the opulent beauty of nature and the dramatic locations, this voyage was of central importance to his artistic development. His subsequent landscapes draw their inspiration from the scenery which he witnessed during this trip. As one of the first artists to travel in this region - when it was thought to be the northernmost point in Europe - his oeuvre would explore recurrent motifs whilst forming a testament to his unique observations.
Balke’s paintings are infused with a magical light inspired by the midnight sun. The power and dramatic quality of his compositions reflects his first-hand experience of extreme weather conditions which he described as 'an impression that did not merely overwhelm me in the violence of the moment but was to exert a decisive influence on my entire later life [...] for in these northerly parts it is the beauties of nature that play the central role whereas nature's living children, human beings, merely occupy a position subordinate to them’ (Buchhardt in Peder Balke. Ein Pionier der Moderne, exh. cat., 2008). Such dramatic scenery can be witnessed in Seascape, 1849 (Nationalmuseum, Stockholm), where the sea surges against a steadfast lighthouse and birds are sent into a frenzy. Viewing Fra Nordkapp alongside his stormy scenes accentuates the extreme calmness of the scene. The potential powerful surges of nature are present, but restrained.
The daylight view, The North Cape, 1845 (oil on canvas, 37 3⁄8 x 52 in., The Savings Bank Foundation DNB, Norway) is one of Balke’s largest easel paintings, and considered amongst the most accomplished and sophisticated works he made in the descriptive, naturalistic vein of his contemporaries Johan Christian Dahl (1788-1857) and Thomas Fearnley (1802-1842). Three years later, in 1848, he visited Dahl in Dresden and painted essentially the same view on an even larger canvas, this time as a night scene, in The North Cape in Moonlight (Peder Balke, North Cape in Moonlight, oil on canvas, 40 ¼ x 55 in., Private collection) and in the same year painted The North Cape by Moonlight (24 7⁄16 x 337⁄18 in., MET Museum, New York, fig. 1). By 1852 Balke had returned to Norway after his extensive travels in London and Paris, where King Louis-Philippe had acquired 30 of his paintings. This was a period of confidence and maturity in his brushwork and an indication towards his more abstract rendering of the Northern Cape. The present lot is a confident return to his 1848 composition. When executing this 1853 painting, Balke made small changes, such as the positioning of the boats, but larger changes in his treatment of the light. The clouds have slightly parted and the awe-inspiring moon shines brighter. In response, the boats to the right of the composition are cast into shadow, and the moon, nature, dominates human activity. This could be only moments after the inspiration for the 1848 paintings, but it tells an entirely new story.
By the time Balke executed this work, dated 1853, the North Cape had become a signature image. He employed his materials cannily: the smooth paper support is well suited to the flatly applied, gradated tones of the sky, which is clear, save for the quickly worked clouds that form a dome with the moon as its keystone. The cape’s massif appears as a single broad horizontal stroke of dark grey paint, with visible brush marks that contribute a subtle note of texture. This restraint was abandoned through the use of bolder impasto for the snowy crags and the surface of the water.