Balke visited the North Cape only once, in 1832, but the experience became a touchstone of his imagination for the rest of his life. The tenebrous palette and expressive brushwork seen in this moonlit view are characteristic of Balke’s mature style, which stands in contrast to the more restrained naturalism of his mentor Johan Christian Dahl. When this painting was exhibited in Oslo in the fall of 1848, a critic wrote that it "claims our interest, both for the nature of the subject itself and the singularity of the perception of the chosen moment."
