6087 - Baade, Knud Andreassen

Baade, Knud Andreassen Norwegian Fjord Landscape with Building Stones. Oil on canvas, with relining. 36 x 51 cm. Signed "Baade 1844" on the left margin. In this “Norwegian Landscape with Building Stones,” we encounter one of those ethereal landscapes in which Knud Andreassen Baade conceives of Norwegian nature not merely as a topographical motif, but as a setting for memory, myth, and inner feeling. Between the rugged cliffs and the low-lying banks of fog, the fjord lies in unfathomable depths. Only a single seagull and a few cormorants enliven the scene. The viewer’s attention, however, is drawn to the slender standing stones, known as menhirs in Norway and Denmark. They are archaic symbols of human presence, whose monumentality and simplicity evoke a distant, mythical past. This creates the impression of an unreal place outside the bounds of measured time—a landscape in which the present, history, and Nordic legend merge. Baade’s particular interest in the Norwegian landscape may also stem from his close artistic connection to Johan Christian Dahl (1788–1857). After completing his training at the Copenhagen Academy, Baade went to Dresden, where he became a student of Dahl from 1836 to 1839. The two artists then traveled through Norway together before Baade returned to Dresden from 1843 to 1845. Dahl, a native of Bergen, had elevated the Norwegian landscape to an independent Romantic subject in the early 19th century. However, Dahl’s influence on Baade extends far beyond the adoption of individual landscape motifs. What is far more significant is the idea that nature itself can become the vessel of a spiritual and national memory. While Dahl tends to focus on the geological and scenic reality of Norway, Baade transforms it into a visionary stage. In particular, his landscapes—marked by twilight, moonlight, and fog—possess that distinctive liminal quality between reality and imagination that became characteristic of his work. Our Landscape was painted in 1844, during Baade’s second stay in Dresden following his trip to Norway with Dahl and before his permanent move to Munich in 1845. The painting combines the influences of Dresden Romanticism with the visual world of Norway. While German artists—above all Caspar David Friedrich—discovered the megalithic tomb as a motif from their own prehistory, for the Norwegian artist Baade, the standing stones take on this role. They are human markers in the vast natural world, erected for eternity, yet appearing enigmatic and small against the immeasurable landscape. It is precisely here that the Romantic dimension of the painting lies. Provenance: Blomqvist, Oslo/Fornebu, auction on May 31, 2011, lot 216. Asbjorn Lunde Collection (1927–2017), New York. Exhibition: Tromsø, Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum: “Historien fremstilt i bilder,” October 15, 2011 – January 15, 2012. Tromsø, Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum: *Måneskinnsmaleren*, June 23–September 30, 2012. - Please request condition reports for the lots, as the condition is listed in the catalog only in exceptional cases. - Please ask for condition reports for individual lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalog.