Midnight sun on the island of Hestman in Norway 

Knud Baade painted ‘Midnight sun on the island of Hestman in Norway’ with oil, capturing a landscape dominated by monumental mountains and a luminous sky. The texture of the mountains suggests a rough, primordial landscape. The composition is structured around a contrast between the dark, solid forms of the rocks and mountains, and the ethereal, light-filled sky and sea. The artist uses light not just to illuminate, but to dissolve forms, blurring the boundaries between earth and sky. The reflected light on the water creates a semiotic mirroring effect, symbolizing perhaps the transient nature of perception itself. Baade’s strategic use of light and shadow invites a reconsideration of how we perceive stability and change. It is through these formal choices that the painting invites us to contemplate the sublime, engaging with philosophical ideas about the limits of human understanding.