In the 1860s, Balke developed a radical simplification of form and a directness in the way he applied paint to the support. In this hallucinatory view, a ghostly mountain rises through clouds and mist, its base entirely obscured by dense fog. The rocks and surf are rendered with slightly more bodied paint. The white ground layer is visible throughout the composition. There are few, if any, parallels to this painting among the works of Balke’s contemporaries in Norway or elsewhere in Europe.