"In 1832, the Norwegian painter Peder Balke (1804-1887) traveled to the far north of Norway to the dramatic coastline of the North Cape. The experience was so profound that he built his career painting isolated Arctic Circle seascapes. His pictures were originally rooted in the 19th-century romanticism of artists such as Caspar David Friedrich and his compatriot, Johan Christian Dahl. Later in his career Balke created improvised seascapes with roughly...