View from Stalheim (Norwegian: Fra Stalheim) is an 1842 oil painting by Johan Christian Dahl of the mountainous view from Stalheim, Voss, Hordaland. It is a major work of Romantic nationalism and has become a national icon. It is regarded as one of Dahl's best works.
| View from Stalheim | |
|---|---|
| Norwegian: Fra Stalheim | |
 | |
| Artist | Johan Christian Dahl |
| Year | 1842 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 190 cm × 246 cm (75 in × 97 in) |
| Location | National Gallery of Norway, Oslo |
| Accession | NG.M.01060 |
| Website | digitaltmuseum |
Description
editThe painting shows the view from the peak at Stalheim over the Nærøy Valley towards the sugarloaf-shaped peak of Jordalsnuten[1][2] in late afternoon sunshine, framed by peaks and a rainbow. The sun shines on a small village near the centre. Dahl has clearly delineated figures and buildings even in the distance, creating "a world in miniature".[3] One of his purposes was realism; the other was to capture the glory and magnificence of the mountains, and associated with that, of his country's culture.[3][4][5] In this evocation of grandeur the painting prefigures later US landscapes, in particular Church's Rainy Season in the Tropics (1866), which has a similar crowning rainbow.[3][6] The rainbow itself, a symbol of reconciliation, peace, and in Christianity of God's grace,[7] was also frequently used by Joseph Anton Koch and by Dahl's friend and associate Caspar David Friedrich.[8]
History
editDahl began work on the painting in 1836 and completed it in 1842.[9][10] It is based on two pencil and watercolour sketches he had made from the Gudvangen road in July 1826[11][12][13] during his first visit to the high mountain regions of Norway. The final version is close to the studies in both composition and details, including the sunlight highlighting the village;[3] but Dahl has intensified the imagery by narrowing the valley, giving more prominence to the Jordalsnuten peak and less to the reappearance of the river from the shadows.[4]
Dahl had trouble with the painting and avoided similarly large works after its completion.[14]
Provenance
editThe painting was made for Countess Wedel of Bogstad.[14] Carl Gustav Wedel-Jarlsberg gave it to the National Gallery of Norway in 1914.[15]
Reception
editThe painting is regarded as one of Dahl's best,[16][17] perhaps his most successful realisation of his aim of depicting the mountains both realistically and as national symbols.[3][5] It has become a national icon.[6][7] Other painters have also depicted the scene,[1] and even more than his other Norwegian landscapes, this one drove tourists to visit the site: the luxury hotel built at Stalheim in 1885 is attributable to it.[4]
References
edit- ^ a b "Stalheim", Store norske leksikon, 14 February 2009, retrieved 23 October 2014 (in Norwegian).
- ^ The Making of a Land: Geology of Norway, ed. Ivar B. Ramberg et al., Trondheim: Norsk Geologisk Forening, 2008, ISBN 9788292394427, p. 111.
- ^ a b c d e Torsten Gunnarsson, tr. Nancy Adler, Nordic Landscape Painting in the Nineteenth Century, New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University, 1998, ISBN 9780300070415, pp. 90–94.
- ^ a b c Susanne Wittekind, "Natur, Volk und Geschichte. Die künstlerische Konstruktion Norwegens in der Landschaftsmalerei Johan Christian Claussen Dahls (1788–1857)", in Die Lesbarkeit der Romantik: Material, Medium, Diskurs, ed. Erich Kleinschmidt, Berlin: de Gruyter, 2009, pp. 309–335, p. 328 (in German).
- ^ a b Ronald G. Popperwell, Norway, Nations of the modern world, New York: Prager, 1972, OCLC 514904, p. 51.
- ^ a b Arne Neset, Arcadian Waters and Wanton Seas: The Iconology of Waterscapes in Nineteenth-Century Transatlantic Culture, American University Studies Series XIX,, General Literature, 36, New York: Lang, 2009, ISBN 978-1433102974, p. 58.
- ^ a b Åshild Brenne, "Historiske linjer", Nye Meninger, Dagsavisen, 24 December 2010 (in Norwegian).
- ^ Susanne Wittekind, "Natur, Volk und Geschichte. Die künstlerische Konstruktion Norwegens in der Landschaftsmalerei Johan Christian Claussen Dahls (1788–;1857)", in Die Lesbarkeit der Romantik: Material, Medium, Diskurs, ed. Erich Kleinschmidt, Berlin: de Gruyter, 2009, p. 326 (in German).
- ^ "Nature's way": Romantic Landscapes from Norway: Oil Studies, Watercolours and Drawings by Johan Christian Dahl (1788–1857) and Thomas Fearnley (1802–1842), ed. Jane Munro, exhibition catalogue, Manchester: Whitworth Gallery, University of Manchester / Cambridge: Fitzwilliam Museum, 1993, ISBN 9780904454307, p. 19.
- ^ Caspar David Friedrich, Johan Christian Dahl: Zeichnungen der Romantik, ed. Kornelia von Berswordt-Wallrabe, exhibition catalogue, Schwerin: Staatliches Museum, 2001, ISBN 9783861060673, p. 19 (in German).
- ^ Darkness and Light: The Proceedings of the Oslo Symposium 25.–28. August 1994, ed. Roger Erlandsen and Vegard S. Halvorsen, Oslo: National Institute for Historical Photography and Norwegian Society for the History of Photography in association with European Society for the History of Photography, 1995, ISBN 9788299073554, p. 46, note 5.
- ^ Wittekind, p. 325 (in German).
- ^ Andreas Aubert, Professor Dahl: et stykke av aarhundredets kunst- og kulturhistorie, Christiania: Aschehoug, 1893, OCLC 27733743, p. 224 (in Norwegian)
- ^ a b Andreas Aubert, Den nordiske naturfølelse og professor Dahl: hans kunst og dens stilling i aarhundredets utvikling, Christiania: Aschehoug, 1894, OCLC 27821682, pp. 151–52 (in Norwegian).
- ^ "Fra Stalheim [Maleri]", Digitalt Museum, National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design (in Norwegian).
- ^ Jens Thiis, "Johan Christian Dahl", The American-Scandinavian Review 26 (1938) 5–21, p. 20.
- ^ Carl G. Laurin, Emil Hannover and Jens Thiis, Scandinavian Art, Scandinavian monographs 5, New York: American-Scandinavian Foundation / London: Milford, 1922, OCLC 1572380, p. 443.