Landscape at Ellekilde in North Zealand. Sunset.

Carl Bloch was one of Denmark's most celebrated religious painters, known for his monumental cycles of New Testament scenes, but he also produced landscapes and portraits throughout his career. This 1889 sunset landscape at Ellekilde in North Zealand belongs to his later work — a direct study of the Danish coastal landscape in the warm light of evening. Ellekilde, on the shores of the Øresund strait, offered views across to Sweden, and the setting sun over the sea was a subject well suited to Bloch's gift for tonal contrast and atmospheric depth.

Bloch renders the sunset with warm, golden light falling across the landscape and reflecting in the still water below. His handling is direct and confident, with the sky given careful gradation from orange near the horizon to cooler tones above. The landscape forms are broadly treated, subordinated to the atmospheric effect of the evening light.