This beautiful early 20th-century landscape by Danish artist Harald Foss (1843-1922) depicts a tranquil lake at dusk as a great bank of cloud passes overhead. Foss was an accomplished landscape painter who spent more than half a century depicting the lakes, heathlands and rolling countryside of Jutland.

Take a deep breath, as a broad lake winds gently into the distance between low hills and open countryside. Reeds gather along its margins, a dark wooded peninsula extends from the left, and the opposite shore rises gradually towards the horizon. There are no buildings to draw the eye and scarcely any human presence. A couple of tiny grazing animals can just be made out in the shadowed foreground.

Nothing happens in this painting - except the evening.

A vast bank of blue-grey cloud is passing overhead, placing much of the landscape beneath its shadow. Beyond it, however, the sky has begun to clear. A narrow band of warm yellow and apricot light appears above the distant hills.

Foss has captured one of those fleeting effects that anyone who spends time outdoors will recognise. The weather is moving on. The foreground remains beneath the cloud, while the horizon beyond has already begun to brighten. In another few minutes, the reflection across the lake will have changed or disappeared entirely.

Foss was particularly attracted to the lakes, heathlands and rolling countryside of Jutland, especially around Ry, Himmelbjerget and the central Jutland lake district. His compositions frequently lead the eye through winding shorelines, overlapping hills and distant horizons.

Foss made his debut at the Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition in 1865 and continued to exhibit there regularly for more than 50 years. The reverse of this painting bears a horizontal mark consistent with the former position of an exhibition label. Its dimensions appear similar to labels encountered on works exhibited at Charlottenborg.

Signed in the lower right and held within a later frame.

Learn more about Harald Foss in our directory.

Medium: Oil on canvas
Overall size: 48” x 37½” / 122cm x 95cm
Year of creation: c. 1910
Provenance: Private collection, UK.
Condition: Cleaned. Revarnished. Canvas relined. Areas of fine and settled craquelure, as you would expect. The paint layer is stable. Frame in excellent condition. 
Artist’s auction maximum: £7,380 achieved in 2008 for ‘Bramsnaes (1884)’.
Our reference: BRV2330