Five paintings by the celebrated Norwegian artist Peder Balkehave been added to an existing long-term loan from the distinguished private collection of AsbjörnLunde to the Scottish National Gallery.
Balke’s innovative and highly original pictures will complement the selection of landscape paintings by Norwegian and Swiss artists such as Johan Christian Dahl, Alexandre Calame, and Thomas Fearnley, which are currently on show in the exhibition Rocks and Rivers: Masterpieces of Landscape Painting from the Lunde Collection.
Peder Balke (1804–87) was one of the most original painters of 19th-century Scandinavia. Born on the Norwegian island of Helgøya, he attended art school in Christiania (now Oslo), before studying with painters in Stockholm and Dresden. Balke travelled to the largely inaccessible North Cape of his native Norway where the dramatic and rugged lands had a profound affect and he built his career painting those isolated Arctic Circle landscapes.
Works by Balke and the other artists in the display are rare in British public collections and the National Galleries of Scotland is delighted to have the opportunity to showcase this important but little-known chapter in nineteenth-century landscape painting.
Asbjörn Lunde, the New York-based son of Norwegian émigrés to the United States, began collecting Scandinavian art in 1968. The first works he acquired were by Fearnley and fellow Norwegian Knud Baade. Now one of the world’s leading experts and collectors in this area, Lunde has since lent and gifted works to prestigious cultural institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum (New York), the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute (Williamstown, MA), and The National Gallery of Australia (Canberra).
Tico Seifert, Senior Curator of Northern European Art, says: “We are delighted to present these outstanding paintings by Peder Balke to our audiences. Balke was recently rediscovered in a groundbraking exhibition at the National Gallery in London. His works are stunningly individual and add a new dimension to this important long-term loan from the Lunde Collection, for which the National Galleries of Scotland are most grateful”.
NEW ARRIVALS : FIVE RARELY SEEN WORKS ADDED TO DISPLAY OF LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS FROM THE LUNDE COLLECTION
Until 30 January 2017
SCOTTISH NATIONAL GALLERY
The Mound, Edinburgh, EH2 2EL
Admission FREE | 0131 624 6200
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