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Dimensions: 26.5 by 37cm., 10 1/2 by 14 1/2 in.
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Provenance: PROPERTY OF A NORWEGIAN PRIVATE COLLECTOR
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Literature: Marie Lødrup Bang, Johan Christian Dahl: 1788-1857: Life and Works, Oslo, 1987, vol. II, p. 132, no. 355, catalogued; vol. III, pl. 144, illustrated
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Notes: Johan Christian Dahl
The present work and following two lots, each from a different private collection, shed light on Dahl's working practices and the subjects that inspired him during his first hectic decade in Germany.
The 1820s for Dahl were a period of great artistic ferment that ended in domestic tragedy. After finishing his studies in Denmark in 1818, on his move to Dresden Dahl's circumstances underwent rapid change. In Copenhagen he had been taught at the Academy by the highly respected C.A. Lorentzen (see previous lot). On his arrival in Dresden he quickly immersed himself in the artistic life of the city. Among the many and varied friendships that he struck up there, one of his earliest acquaintances was Caspar David Friedrich (see lot 26). Through Friedrich Dahl also befriended the painter Carl Gustav Carus (see lot 27). Early in 1820 he was elected as a member of the Dresden Academy, and in June the same year he married the young Emilie von Bloch. The following day, however, he journeyed alone to Italy where he remained for a year, staying in both Rome and Naples. Among the many works he painted there, he executed lot 303, Nordic Landscape by a Lake, in 1820 and recorded the scene that would result in the completion of lot 302, Ruins near Baia, two years later. Following his return to Dresden, Caroline, his first child, was born in 1822, and in 1823, the year that his wife gave birth to his son Alfred, he and his young family began sharing a house with Friedrich. In 1824 he became Professor Extraordinary at the Academy in Dresden, and in 1825 his second daughter, Marie, was born. In search of fresh material for his northern landscapes, Dahl returned to Norway for the first time in fifteen years in 1826. By the time that he had painted lot 304, View from Krokkleiva, in 1828, however, his domestic happiness had been struck a cruel blow. His wife Emilie died in 1827 following the birth of his fourth child Siegwald. Then, two years later both his middle children, Alfred and Marie died of scarlet fever. After re-marrying in 1830, his second wife died in childbirth the same year, their child, Harald, dying in 1835.
Dahl mentions the present work in Fortegnelse over mine Arbeider (the small notebook in which the artist recorded his works between 1817 and 1823) in an entry for February 1822: 'The rising moon - landscape with the ruins of Nero's bath by Bajae [sic] - a small cabinet piece' (Bang, p. 132).
During his travels to Naples in 1820, Dahl noted in his diary, 'From the 1st to the 4th of December I have been on a trip with Ritmester Schvitzzer, to Ischia - Prosita - Bajae - and Potsolo - see beautiful things both from Antiquity and in Nature' (Bang, p. 132). It was during this trip that Dahl executed a pencil study for the present work, now in the archives of the National Gallery of Oslo (NG. Inv. No. B8036).
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