The Wreck

Knud-Andreassen Baade (1808-1879) was born in Skjold in Norway. At first self-taught, he attended the Copenhagen Academy and became a student of Christopher Wilhelm Eckersberg (1783-1853). From 1829 to 1831, he stayed in Norway and became in 1839 the pupil of J.N.C. Dahl (1788-1857) who had a decisive influence on his art. He settled definitively in Munich in 1845 and became there a master of lyrical moonlight motifs. He was appointed a member of the Stockholm Academy in 1872.

This painting is a fine example of Baade’s lyrical landscape characterised by raging storms. It shows a shipwreck on the Norland coast, with a rough sea merging with the atmospheric sky. This painting was most likely inspired by the Norland scenery Baade visited in 1834. The high degree of finish and subject matter are typical of Germanic Romanticism.