PEDER BALKE (1804-1887)
Trolltindene or Seven Sisters (1,072 m - 3,517 ft)
Norway
In Mountain Range Trolltindene, oil on canvas, 30.8 x 41.9 cm, c. 1840,
Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum, Tromsø, Norway
About the painting
One of Peder Balke's earliest surviving paintings of the coast is the romantic and dramatic Mountain Range Trolltindene (or Seven Sisters) from about 1840. Its carefully framed clear patch in the clouds reveals this part of a mountain chain rising to over 1000 m, at the western edge of the great Rondane National Park in central Norway.
One of Peder Balke's earliest surviving paintings of the coast is the romantic and dramatic Mountain Range Trolltindene (or Seven Sisters) from about 1840. Its carefully framed clear patch in the clouds reveals this part of a mountain chain rising to over 1000 m, at the western edge of the great Rondane National Park in central Norway.
The mountains
Trolltindene or Seven Sisters (1,072 m - 3,517 ft) is a mountain range on the island of Alsten in Alstahaug Municipality in Nordlandcounty, Norway.The mountain range consists of seven peaks on the southeastern half of the island. whicg are (listed from northeast to southwest):
- Botnkrona (1,072 m - 3,517 ft)
- Grytfoten (1,019 m - 3,343 ft)
- Skjæringen (1,037 - 3,402 ft)
- Tvillingene (980 m- 3,220 ft)
- Breitinden (910m - 2,990 ft)
The range is popular with hikers and offers scenic views over the surrounding area. On clear days visitors can truly understand why the surroundings are called "The kingdom of the thousand isles" by the locals.
The painter
Peder Balke is a Norwegian painter that was even barely known in his home country, until recently. He didn’t encounter success during his lifetime. Having difficulties to sell his paintings, he abandoned his career to focus on social projects and politics but he continued to paint for his own pleasure. Once delivered from the pressure of making a living from his paintings, his style changed to become more personal, more modern.
During the summer 1832, Peder Balke, who was in love with the Norwegian landscapes, decided to go and seek for its most remote, its most desolate and its most distant points by sailing up the west coast of Norway as far as he could go. He went up to the inhospitable and barely accessible far-northern region of Finnmark. He reached the North Cape, the northernmost part of Norway, which was even more impressive at that time because it was the further north you could go, the final limit to knowledge and exploration – beyond it lies nothing (explorers only reached the North Pole in the late 1900s, two decades after his death).
- Grytfoten (1,019 m - 3,343 ft)
- Skjæringen (1,037 - 3,402 ft)
- Tvillingene (980 m- 3,220 ft)
- Breitinden (910m - 2,990 ft)
The range is popular with hikers and offers scenic views over the surrounding area. On clear days visitors can truly understand why the surroundings are called "The kingdom of the thousand isles" by the locals.
The painter
Peder Balke is a Norwegian painter that was even barely known in his home country, until recently. He didn’t encounter success during his lifetime. Having difficulties to sell his paintings, he abandoned his career to focus on social projects and politics but he continued to paint for his own pleasure. Once delivered from the pressure of making a living from his paintings, his style changed to become more personal, more modern.
During the summer 1832, Peder Balke, who was in love with the Norwegian landscapes, decided to go and seek for its most remote, its most desolate and its most distant points by sailing up the west coast of Norway as far as he could go. He went up to the inhospitable and barely accessible far-northern region of Finnmark. He reached the North Cape, the northernmost part of Norway, which was even more impressive at that time because it was the further north you could go, the final limit to knowledge and exploration – beyond it lies nothing (explorers only reached the North Pole in the late 1900s, two decades after his death).
Peder Balke wrote in his memoirs: “I can’t begin to describe how elated I was at having seen and re-tread the land, once again, after satisfying my deep longing to see the northern provinces. No easier is it for me to pen my thoughts on which sublime and mesmerizing impressions the wealth of natural beauty and unrivaled settings leave upon the mind of an observer. These impressions not only overwhelmed me for a brief moment, but they, too, influenced my entire future since I never yet, neither abroad nor other places in our country, have had the occasion to gaze at something so awe-inspiring and exciting as that which I observed during this journey to Finnmark. Unsurpassed in the norther provinces is the beauty of nature, while humans – nature’s children – play but a minor role, in comparison”.
The 1832 journey had a momentous effect upon his development as an artist; the eerie, isolated, dramatic and gloomy Arctic landscapes became a leitmotiv as he continued to paint them from his memory for the rest of his life.
Peder Blake’s early paintings are quintessentially romantic, the product of a man awed by nature, overwhelmed by the often-horrifying beauty of his own land.
Long forgotten, Peder Balke is today increasingly recognized as an important precursor of modern painters.
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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau
___________________________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau
