The North Cape by Moonlight
Peder Balke
- Institution
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art ↗
- Accession
- 2019.167.4
- Credit
- Gift of Christen Sveaas, in celebration of the Museum's 150th Anniversary, 2019
- Rights
Public domain: the artist died in 1887. The Metropolitan Museum of Art releases this image under CC0 through its Open Access programme.
- Description
- A dark sea at night under heavy clouds. The moon breaks through at the top and throws a path of light down onto the water; the flat-topped cliffs of the North Cape stand pale on the horizon, and a small boat with figures rows in the foreground.
- Image
- 1600 × 1155
source file retrieved 2026-10-11 - Catalogue no.
- G-009023
coldlibrary.com/g/009023 - Credit line
- Peder Balke, The North Cape by Moonlight, 1848. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, public domain (CC0). Via Cold Library: https://coldlibrary.com/g/009023
Balke travelled to the far north of Norway as a young man and returned to the North Cape in his paintings for the rest of his life, often on a small scale. His brushwork is fast and almost modern, with the light scraped and dragged across the sea. It is the northernmost place on this wall.
