Landskap I Solnedgang 1852

Editor: Knud Baade’s "Landskap I Solnedgang", painted in 1852, just glows with this incredible light. It's like a scene remembered rather than directly observed, perhaps a bit sentimental. What draws you into this particular landscape? Curator: It's funny you say "remembered" – because when I look at it, I can almost smell the damp earth and feel that evening chill creeping in! For me, the Romantic painters always tapped into something primal. Baade sets up a stage, doesn’t he? We're watching a play of light, of time passing, on a stage where we never quite see the players up close, or maybe those dark trees on the sides _are_ the actors, waiting in the wings… it's beautiful. Do you think it's beautiful, or is it too… sugary? Editor: I think that seeing "the players waiting in the wings" definitely brings something interesting into view, though it wasn't obvious at first glance. There is some sort of sentimental staging, perhaps, or artful arrangement, though I also felt that the sky feels vast and imposing when set against those figures of trees. Curator: Exactly. And that's where Baade holds the tension – the intimacy of the small figures versus the grand spectacle of nature. Do you feel any kind of narrative at all? Like a story unfolding in the colors themselves? Editor: I hadn't, but now I am wondering about the small shapes clustered around the glowing setting sun in the center of the painting, some almost silhouetted against the bright horizon. I also want to now look into similar paintings of the time... What a great piece, it has some subtle depths. Curator: Yes! Subtlety is often what separates lasting work from the throwaway image, isn't it? And sometimes it takes a friend, and new perspectives, to pull us into seeing something new.