Norwegian painter Peder Balke (1804 – 1887) painted fascinating landscapes and seascapes that at first glance seem to be indebted to the Romantic tradition of landscape painting. His work, however, is extraordinary and unique, comparable maybe to the work of William Turner. The overwhelming natural beauty of northern Norway, which Balke discovered on a trip though the Finnmark region in the summer of 1832, would leave an indelible mark on his career as an artist. Using brushes, the wet-on-wet technique or scratching directly in the paint, the artist created groundbreaking images pointing the way toward modernism. His innovative treatment of the medium would not be widely acknowledged until the 20th century: in the 1990s the Danish painter Per Kirkeby wrote a book about the maverick artist. The catalog traces Balke's development from the early 1830s over the emergence of his unique style in the 1840s all the way to his radical works of the 1860s, demonstrating his undeniable significance as pioneer of modernism.

Editor: Anne-Brigitte Fonsmark, Dieter Buchhart
Authors: Dieter Buchhart, Kasper Monrad, Marit Ingeborg Lange
Artists: Peder Balke

Hardcover
21 x 25,5 cm
112 pages
58 color ills.
German/Danish
available
ISBN 978-3-86828-016-6
28 Euro
2008