Harald Moltke

Who was Harald Moltke?

Harald Viggo Moltke was a Danish painter and author, who was educated on the Royal Danish Academy of Art 1889–1893. Among his activities Moltke participated as draughtsman in four Arctic expeditions.

From May to November 1898 he participated in a geological expedition headed by K. J. V. Steenstrup to the Disko Bay region at the west coast of Greenland. From this expedition Moltke made paintings of geological structures, a.o., the coast line of Nugsuark Peninsula, and of the Inuit, a.o., "Greenland women in umiak".

During July 1899 to April 1900 Moltke joined an aurora expedition to Akureyri in Iceland. The expedition was arranged and headed by the director, Adam F. W. Paulsen, of the Danish Meteorological Institute. Further participants were Dan Barfod la Cour, director of DMI 1923-1942, and Ivar B. Jantzen. In Akureyri, Moltke made 19 paintings of auroras and 5 portrait sketches of the expedition members.

In the winter 1900-1901 Moltke participated in another DMI aurora expedition; this time to Utsjoki in northern Finland. This expedition was headed by Dan B. la Cour. Further participants were Carl Edvard Thune Middelboe and Johannes K. Kofoed.