Domkirkeplassen 1, 5003 Bergen, Norway
As a young boy, Dahl was a pupil of the Bergen Cathedral.
1820
Portrait of painter Johan Christian Dahl by Johann Carl Rößler.
Portrait of J.C. Dahl by Hans Leganger Reusch.
Johan Christian, portrait.
1820
Portrait of painter Johan Christian Dahl by Johann Carl Rößler.
Domkirkeplassen 1, 5003 Bergen, Norway
As a young boy, Dahl was a pupil of the Bergen Cathedral.
Portrait of J.C. Dahl by Hans Leganger Reusch.
Johan Christian, portrait.
Statue of J. C. Dahl by Ambrosia Tønnesen (1902).
Dahl was born in Bergen, Norway, on February 24, 1788. He was the son of Claus Troelson and Else Bergitte Jonsdtr Dahl. His father was a modest fisherman in Bergen, Norway. Dahl had two brothers, Hans Hendrich Claussen and Truls Dahl, and a sister, Anna Margrethe Clausdtr Dahl.
Because of the poor conditions in which Johan Dahl was raised, he looked back at his youth with bitterness. Dahl regretted that he never had a "real teacher" in his early years and, in spite of all his splendid success, he believed that if he had been more fortunate in his birth, he would have achieved even more than he had.
As a young boy, Dahl was a pupil of the Bergen Cathedral. He was educated by a compassionate mentor who at first thought that Johan Dahl would become a good priest, but then, recognizing his remarkably premature artistic ability, found him an art tutor. Between 1803 and 1809 Dahl studied under the supervision of painter Johan Georg Müller, whose workshop was the most important one in Bergen at that time.
Notwithstanding, Dahl believed that his teacher kept him in ignorance in order to exploit him, putting the young painter to create theatrical sets, portraits, and views of Bergen and its surroundings. Another mentor, Lyder Sagen, showed the endeavouring artist books about art and awakened his interest in patriotic and historical subjects.
Dahl went to Copenhagen in 1811 to complete his education at the local academy. In the city, Dahl's received important experience form the surrounding countryside and from the city's art collections. To much extent, he became inspired by the landscape artists, including Ruisdael and Everdingen, and for that reason he was studying "nature above all."
Dahl participated in annual art exhibitions in Copenhagen in 1812. However, his real breakthrough came in 1815, when he exhibited 13 of his paintings. Prince Christian Frederik of Denmark developed an early interest in Johan Dahl's artistic skills and purchased his numerous artworks for the royal collection. The two became lifelong friends and the Prince became the artist's patron.
In 1816 Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, a Danish painter, returned from abroad to Denmark with his paintings of Roman settings. Johan Dahl was impressed straightaway, and they became close friends and exchanged pictures. Dahl's 1817 painting “Den Store Kro i Fredensborg” is considered to mark the real beginning of his lifelong creation of oil paintings depicting natural subjects.
Dahl travelled to Dresden in September 1818. He arrived with introductions to the city's leading citizens and to major artists, including Caspar David Friedrich, who helped him establish himself there and became his good friend. One critic later wrote: "Friedrich's still, meticulously executed landscapes - products of an art informed by his strict Protestant upbringing and a seeking for the divine in nature - were justifiably famous by the time he and Dahl became acquainted. We are able to see his Two Men Contemplating the Moon (1819), which ranks among his greatest works, and features two "Rückfiguren," or figures seen from behind, solemnly and companionably gazing at a young sickle moon from the edge of an old forest. 'Greifswald in Moonlight' (1816-1817) depicts the artist's birthplace in Pomerania, on the Baltic coast: bathed in an even, gauzy moonlight, the ancient university town assumes an almost ethereal appearance."
Caspar David Friedrich was fourteen years elder then Dahl and an acknowledged painter. Nevertheless, both artists found in each other a shared love for nature and a shared enthusiasm for a way of depicting nature, based on the study of nature itself rather than on the academic cliches that they both deeply detested. As a result, together with Friedrich and Carl Gustav Carus, Johan Dahl became one of the Dresden painters of the period who exerted a decisive influence on German Romantic painting.
In Dresden Dahl travelled around the area to draw subjects that could be used later in his larger artworks. In 1818 he wrote to Prince Christian Frederik that "most of all I am representing nature in all its freedom and wildness." Dahl collected enough material in the Dresden area to supply motifs for his works, but he continued his work on imaginary landscapes with mountains, forests, and waterfalls. One such painting, entitled "Norsk fjellandskap med elv" ("Mountainous Norwegian landscape with river"), was completed in 1819. Another monumental waterfall artwork was painted the next year.
Prince Christian Frederik invited Dahl to come to Italy and join him at the Gulf of Naples in 1820. Johan Dahl spent 10 months in Italy. The trip was a decisive factor in his artistic development. It was in Italy, with its strong southern light that the artist's art truly blossomed.
In February 1821 Johan Dahl went to Rome. He spent a lot of time visiting museums, meeting other artists, and creating paintings to sell. In addition to painting sights in Rome and views of the Gulf of Naples, Dahl painted landscapes inspired by the mountains of Norway. Dahl said that not until he was in Rome did he started to truly appreciate Norwegian nature. In June 1821 Dahl returned home.
Johan Dahl quickly became a member of Dresden's leading circles of artists, poets, and scientists, among them the archaeologist C. A. Böttiger, who was the publisher of Artistisches Notizenblatt. Böttiger ran a major article on Dahl in 1822.
Dahl always dedicated his time to young painters who sought him out. In 1824 Dahl and Friedrich were named "extraordinary professors" of the Academy of Fine Arts Dresden, although they had no chair there but received a regular salary. In 1823 Johan Dahl moved in with Caspar David Friedrich, so that many of his students, such as Peder Balke, Knud Baade, and Thomas Fearnley, were equally influenced by both artists.
Dahl never created his own "school", but rather preferred his students to develop their own styles. He respected artistic freedom, trying not to inhibit his students' individuality. It was due to this impulse toward individuality that later caused him to reject a permanent chair at the academy.
In his free time, Johan Dahl studied nature in the area around Dresden, or went on longer trips which provided him with topics for his artworks. But most often he painted the view of the Elbe outside his windows in various kinds of light. As the artist wrote in 1828 to the director of the Academy of Fine Arts, he found the area around Dresden useful for nature studies, but the "real thing" was always missing; that was something he could only find in his mountainous homeland.
He considered himself a "more Nordic painter" and aspired to return to Norway. However, he was able to make a journey home only in 1826. Subsequently, Dahl made trips to Norway in 1834, 1839, 1844, and 1850. During these trips, he mainly explored and painted the mountains, creating his monumental works Fortundalen (1836) and Stalheim (1842).
After the deaths of his two wives, Dahl was devastated. It took many months before he was able to paint again. Johan Dahl's trip to Norway in 1850 became his last one. Even in his later years, the artist continued to paint landscapes in the mountains, producing several magnificent works, such as Måbødalen, Fra Stugunøset, and Hjelle i Valdres.
Lohan Dahl co-founded the National Gallery of Norway (Norwegian: Nasjonalgalleriet), now the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, and donated his own art collection to the institution. In cooperation with Frederik Stang, Johan Sebastian Welhaven, and Henrik Heftye, he also became a founder of the Art Society in Oslo (Oslo Kunstforening).
Johan Dahl became the first great romantic painter of Norway. He is considered the founder of the "golden age" of Norwegian painting and one of the most remarkable European artists of all time. Dahl was the first Norwegian Painter ever to achieve a level of artistic accomplishment comparable to that reached by the greatest European artists of his time. In addition, he was able to receive international acclaim, particularly admired in Denmark and Germany.
Christian Dahl got three honours for his extraordinary cultural impact throughout Scandinavia. Among them were the Order of Vasa and the Order of St. Olav, both bestowed by the King of Norway and Sweden; as well as the Order of Dannebrog from Denmark.
In 1902 a statue of Johan Dahl by Norwegian sculptor Ambrosia Tønnesen was erected on the facade of the West Norway Museum of Decorative Art in Bergen.
Presently, many of his pieces of art may be seen in Dresden. His works are displayed at the Bergen Kunstmuseum in Bergen, Norway; the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Olso; the National Gallery in London; the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the Neue Pinakothek in Munich, etc.
Lyshornet bei Bergen
Avaldsnes church
Entrance to the Port of Copenhagen
Stalheim
Copenhagen Harbour by Moonlight
Eruption of Vesuvius
Frogner Manor
View of Fortundalen
Gewitterstimmung bei Dresden
Boats on the Beach Near Naples
Frederiksborg Castle
Shipwreck on the Coast of Norway
Megalith Grave in Winter
Holmestrand
Bjerk i storm
Der Watzmann
View of Vesuvius from the Coast of Castellammare
The Bay of Naples with Mount Vesuvius
The Falls of Tivoli near Rome
Mount Klint
Portrait of music teacher Henrik Georg Clausen Swane (1818–1897)
A broad-leaved dock (skræppeplante) in the forest floor
The Elbe by Moonlight
Moonlit landscape
Moonlit landscape
Eruption of Vesuvius
Study of a figure from behind
Dyrehaven near Copenhagen
Waterfall in Hemsedal
Cross on a cliff (Klintekorset) at liselund park on møn
Head of a boar
Breakers
Johan Dahl believed that a landscape painting should not just depict a particular view, but should also say something about the land's nature and character - the greatness of its past and the life and work of its current inhabitants.
Dahl was accepted into the Dresden Academy (now the Academy of Fine Arts Dresden) in 1820.
Dahl married his first wife Dorothea Franziska Friederike "Emilie" Freiin von Bloch in 1820. In 1827 she died while giving birth to their fourth child. The artist was left alone with his children: Caroline Elisabeth Bull, Marie Dahl, Johann(es) Siegwald and Alfred Harald Dahl. Two years later two of his older children died of scarlet fever.
In January 1830 Johan Dahl married his student Amalie von Bassewitz, but she died in childbirth in December of that same year. Some years later this youngest child, N. N. Dahl, also died, leaving Dahl with two surviving children, Caroline and Siegwald.
Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) was a German romantic painter, considered one of the greatest artist in European art of the symbolic landscape. He changed the face of landscape paintings with his intense and emotional focus on nature, and became a key figure of the Romantic Movement.
