Sea of Mists: Pupils, Knud Baade
Knud Andreassen Baade was born and brought up on the coast of south-west Norway. He started his training as a painter at the age of fifteen, and transferred to the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen in 1827. He returned to Norway to work as a portraitist in about 1830, where he also developed his skills with landscapes.
Knud Baade (1808–1879), The Wreck (c 1835), further details not known. Wikimedia Commons.
The Wreck from about 1835 shows a sailing ship in the final stages of being wrecked on the rocks of the west coast of Norway, a theme common to the German Romantic painters.
In 1836, he went to the city of Dresden to be taught by JC Dahl, and became influenced by Caspar David Friedrich, who drew Baade working at his easel.
Knud Baade (1808–1879), Cloud Study (1838), oil on paper, 13 x 17 cm, Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design, Oslo, Norway. Wikimedia Commons.
He sketched this dusk Cloud Study in oils on paper in 1838.
Knud Baade (1808–1879), Dresden at Sunset (1838), oil on laid paper mounted on panel, 16 x 22 cm, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden. Wikimedia Commons.
Baade’s finished oil painting of Dresden at Sunset from 1838 establishes him as one of the German Romantic artists. Although its theme is characteristic of Friedrich and his followers, Baade has chosen a moment when there’s sufficient light to see colours and fine detail in the figures, boat and buildings, and he uses a richer palette than in similar views painted by other Romantics.
The following year he developed eye problems, and was forced to return to Norway.
Knud Baade (1808–1879), Storm on the Norwegian Coast (1846), media not known, 36 x 50 cm, Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum, Tromsø, Norway. Wikimedia Commons.
In 1846, Baade painted this violent Storm on the Norwegian Coast. The sea has turned to spume, and the mast and rigging of a sailing vessel indicate that it’s in the process of being wrecked.
That year he moved to Munich, where he established his reputation as a landscape artist, specialising in nocturnes of the Norwegian coast. He also travelled widely in Germany, where he painted dramatic views of its mountains.
Knud Baade (1808–1879), Cloud Study (1850), oil on paper, 15 x 25.5 cm, Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design, Oslo, Norway. Wikimedia Commons.
In 1850, he continued to sketch the sky towards sunset, in this Cloud Study.
Knud Baade (1808–1879), On the West Coast of Norway (1852), media and dimensions not known, Historical Museum Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany. Wikimedia Commons.
On the West Coast of Norway, painted in 1852, is a more tranquil nocturne showing small boats moored on a rocky beach.
Knud Baade (1808–1879), Moonlight Over a Rocky Coast (1868), oil on canvas, 94 x 131 cm, Private collection. Wikimedia Commons.
Baade’s late Moonlight Over a Rocky Coast from 1868 is more typical of German Romanticism, with a sailing boat idle in a small natural harbour. Silhouetted on the nearby crag are two figures, so dark that they didn’t need to be Rückenfiguren.
Baade’s health declined, and he died in Munich in 1879.
