Peder Balke in The National Gallery Londen, tot 12 April 2015
Hoe komt het dat ik nog nooit van de Noorse landschapsschilder Peder Balke had gehoord? Zijn landgenoot Johan Christian Dahl kende ik wel, maar dat komt omdat deze Noorse schilder naar Duitsland emigreerde en in Dresden goed bevriend was met Caspar David Friedrich. Maar Peder Balke bleef in zijn vaderland en schilderde het in de geest van de Romantiek. De natuurkrachten zijn in het fjordenland overal aanwezig en het ruige landschap leent zich erg goed voor het romantische landschap. Het toppunt van Noorwegen is de Noordkaap. In 1832 reisde Balke naar dit barre oord en maakte er schetsen voor zijn ijzigste landschappen.
Peder Balke Nordkap, ca. 1840
In 1832, the Norwegian painter Peder Balke (1804–1887) travelled to the far north of Norway to the dramatic coastline of the North Cape. The experience was so profound that he built his career painting seascapes of the isolated Arctic Circle. His pictures were originally rooted in the nineteenth-century romanticism of artists such as Caspar David Friedrich and his compatriot, Johan Christian Dahl; later in his career Balke created improvised seascapes with roughly applied brushwork – sometimes using his hands, a technique that was prescient of early modern expressionism. His profile as an artist had fallen into obscurity outside of Norway, but now this book brings together a group of Balke’s pictures from collections in Europe and the United States, and introduces readers to a unique artist and personality.
Bron: nationalgallery.co.uk
Bron: nationalgallery.co.uk
