Johan Christian Dahl

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Johan Christian Claussen Dahl, also known as I.C. Dahl, (February 24, 1788 – October 14, 1857), was a Norwegian landscape painter, born in Bergen, and considered to be "the father of Norwegian landscape painting".^[1] He formed his style without much tuition, remaining at Bergen until he was twenty-four, when he left for the better field of Copenhagen, and ultimately settled in Dresden in 1818. There he was much influenced by the great German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich. He is usually included in the German school, although he was thus close on forty years of age when he finally took up his abode in Dresden, where he was quickly received into the Academy and became professor.

German landscape-painting was not greatly advanced at that time, and Dahl contributed to improve it. He continued to reside in Dresden, though he travelled into Tirol and in Italy, painting many pictures, one of his best being that of the Outbreak of Vesuvius, 1820. He was fond of extraordinary effects, as seen in his Winter at Münich, and his Dresden by Moonlight; also the Haven of Copenhagen, and the Schloss of Friedrichsburg, under the same condition. At Dresden may be seen many of his works, notably a large picture called Norway, and a Storm at Sea. He was received into several academic bodies, and had the orders of Vasa and St. Olav sent him by the king of Norway and Sweden.

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This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.