photo #5591091

In this painting, nineteenth-century Norwegian painter Knud Baade contrasted the immovable jagged forms of Sanna Island, Træna, Norway with the transient and animated jags of sea and sky. Having begun his artistic training at the age of fifteen, Baade went on to develop specialities in painting both portraits and landscapes. One major influence on his landscapes was the German artist Caspar David Friedrich, who featured clouds prominently in his more celebrated paintings.Friedrich’s use of dramatic skies was not lost on Baade, who took great care over the cloudscapes in his Norwegian landscapes. The Island Træna in Nordland shown here, for instance, features an impressive mix of formations: sweeping streaks of the high ice-crystal cloud Cirrus in the middle right, more solid-looking forms of the mid-level cloud Altocumulus in the upper right, a golden glow of the subtle high ice-crystal layer cloud Cirrostratus off on the horizon, a looming dark Cumulonimbus storm cloud releasing a shower to the left, partially hidden by the murky, shifting and – yes – jagged forms of Stratocumulus in the foreground across the left and top. It is the sky equivalent of a full house.The Island Træna in Nordland (1838) by Knud Baade, in the collection of the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway, was suggested by Joanne Bignolo (Member 44,448), Jim Holt (Member 57,093), and David Bayard (Member 35,982).