Johan Christian Dahl

The artist’s daughter, Caroline Bull, née Dahl (1822-1894),

thence by inheritance to her son, General Siegwald Bull (1860-1936);

Private collection, Norway;

with Day & Faber, London, 2007,

where acquired by Diane A. Nixon

Kristiania, Christiania Kunstforening, Retrospective Exhibition, 1907, no. 38;

Oslo, Blomqvist Kunsthandel, Minneutstilling, J. C. Dahl 1788-1857, 1926, no. 134

A. Aubert, Maleren Johan Christian Dahl. Et stykke av forrige Aarhundredes Kunst- och Kulturhistorie, Oslo 1920, p. 452;

M.L. Bang, Johan Christian Dahl, Life and Works, Oslo 1987, vol. 2, p. 270, no. 875, vol. 3, pl. 374, no. 875, reproduced

Dahl's oil sketches from nature are among his most beautiful works, capturing masterfully the shifting qualities of light and atmosphere of the landscape. Born in Bergen, Norway, Dahl became one of the leading proponents of the new approach of plein air study. As there was no academy yet established in Norway, he left in 1811 to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. Dahl painted from nature in Denmark, but it was not until he travelled to Italy in 1820 that his sketches became freer and more confident. Though he settled in Dresden for the rest of his life, he made five trips between 1826 and 1850 back to his native Norway, where he painted hundreds of studies, using them upon his return to Dresden as inspiration for his large-scale Nordic landscapes.

During his many years in Dresden, Dahl was very close, both artistically and personally, with his German near-contemporary, Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840), and both men taught at the Dresden Academy of Fine Art. In 2014-15, their artistic relationship was explored in a fascinating exhibition, Dahl and Friedrich. Romantic Landscapes, shown at the National Museum in Oslo and the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.