Johan Christian Dahl (1788-1857)

Lyshornet bei Bergen (1836)
by Johan Christian Dahl
41 × 50 cm

One of the nice things about this project is it offers the opportunity to explore how landscape painting has developed in different countries.

For example, take a look at Suzanne McDermott's post about Nordic Landscape painting (1st May 2008).

She highlights a number of her favourite painters, one of which is Johan Christian Dahl (Norwegian, 1788-1857) who is a Norwegian landscape painter, who was connected to the Romantic movement. He is often considered have been "the father of Norwegian landscape painting".

Johan Christian Dahl began his artistic career as a professor at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts in 1824. He was active mostly in this city but gathered his subject material from the landscape of his home country. Together with Caspar David Friedrich and Carl Gustav Carus, he would become one of the Dresden painters of the period who exerted a decisive influence on German Romantic painting.

J.C. Dahl occupies a central position in Norwegian artistic life of the first half of the 19th century. His Romantic yet naturalistic interpretations of Norwegian scenery aroused interest in Norway on the Continent, where Dahl himself was highly esteemed, particularly in Denmark and Germany.

However his paintings are not limited to Norway - as this spectacular painting indicates

Eruption of Vesuvius (1826)
by Johan Christian Dahl
collection Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt am Main (source: Wikipedia)

You can see more Johan Dahl's landscape paintings on Scholar's Resource.

Links:

• Johan Christian Claussen Dahl (February 24, 1788 – October 14, 1857) - wikipedia article

NOTE: Contact me if you have posted on your blog
about an important aspect in the development of landscape art
which you would like referenced on this blog.