The painter who went north
Peder Balke, the sea, and a reputation that took a century to arrive.
Peder Balke was born in 1804 and spent much of his life painting a part of Norway that few of his contemporaries cared about: the far north, its cliffs, lighthouses and black water.
His pictures are often small and almost monochrome, closer to weather reports than to postcards. Some of the late ones are painted on paper and are barely larger than a postcard.
For a long time he was a footnote. In recent years museums have come back to him, and in 2015 London's National Gallery published a book devoted to his paintings. I like to think he would have found that funny.
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