Hans Dahl (19 February 1849 – 27 July 1937) was a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

. Hans Dahl was most known for his paintings of Norwegian fjords and surrounding landscapes.

Background

Hans Dahl was born in the village of

Granvin Granvin is a former municipality in the old Hordaland county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 2020 when it merged with Voss Municipality. The municipality was located in the traditional district of Hardanger. ...

, on the

Hardangerfjord The Hardangerfjord ( en, Hardanger Fjord) is the fifth longest fjord in the world, and the second longest fjord in Norway. It is located in Vestland county in the Hardanger region. The fjord stretches from the Atlantic Ocean into the mountain ...

Hordaland Hordaland () was a county in Norway, bordering Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Telemark, and Rogaland counties. Hordaland was the third largest county, after Akershus and Oslo, by population. The county government was the Hordaland County Municipal ...

, Norway. His talent was already evident when Dahl was 16 years old. However, it was only after service in the army that Dahl received artistic education. Hans Dahl was educated first to become an officer and became a lieutenant in 1871. He served in the Bergenske Brigade until 1874. After leaving the army, he apprenticed with

Johan Fredrik Eckersberg Johan Fredrik Eckersberg (16 June 1822 – 13 July 1870) was a Norwegian painter most noted for his landscapes. Eckersberg was a prominent figure in the transition from Romanticism to Realism in 19th-century Norwegian art, both as an artistic p ...

and

Knud Bergslien Knud Larsen Bergslien (15 May 1827 – 27 November 1908) was a Norwegian painter, art teacher and master artist. In his art, he frequently portrayed the lives of the Norwegian people, their history and heroes of the past. Bergslien is most associ ...

. He went to

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

, where he studied under

Hans Fredrik Gude Hans Fredrik Gude (March 13, 1825August 17, 1903) was a Norwegian romanticist painter and is considered along with Johan Christian Dahl to be one of Norway's foremost landscape painters. He has been called a mainstay of Norwegian National Roma ...

and and then to

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

, where his teachers included

Eduard von Gebhardt Franz Karl Eduard von Gebhardt (13 June 1838 – 3 February 1925) was a Baltic German painter of portraits and historical scenes, and a professor at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Biography He was born to Ferdinand Theodor von Gebhardt (1803� ...

and

Wilhelm Sohn Johann August Wilhelm Sohn (29 August 1829, in Berlin – 16 March 1899, in Pützchen, near Bonn) was a German genre painter and art professor. Life Johann August Wilhelm Sohn was born 29 August 1829, in Berlin, Germany. In 1847, he went to ...

. His art became associated with the

Düsseldorf school of painting The Düsseldorf school of painting is a term referring to a group of painters who taught or studied at the Düsseldorf Academy (now the Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf or Düsseldorf State Art Academy) during the 1830s and 1840s, when the A ...

, which was characterized by finely detailed yet still fanciful landscapes.

Career

Dahl had his first exhibition in Düsseldorf in 1876. Dahl lived in

until 1888, when he moved to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. Almost every summer, he was back to

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. In 1893, he commissioned the firm of

Jacob Digre Jacob Digre (1811–1891) was a Norwegian architect and builder. Digre's firm was one of the largest construction companies in Northern Norway. He built and designed several monumental buildings in Trondheim including Hjorten, Frimurerlogen, ...

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

to build his summer residence, . It is located on the banks of the

Sognefjord The Sognefjord or Sognefjorden (, en, Sogn Fjord), nicknamed the King of the Fjords ( no, Fjordenes konge), is the largest and deepest fjord in Norway. Located in Vestland county in Western Norway, it stretches inland from the ocean to the smal ...

Balestrand Balestrand is a former municipality in Sogn og Fjordane county, Norway. It was located on the northern shore of the Sognefjorden in the traditional district of Sogn. The administrative center was the village of Balestrand. Other villages in th ...

in the county of

Sogn og Fjordane Sogn og Fjordane (; English: "Sogn and Fjordane") was, up to 1 January 2020, a county in western Norway, when it was merged to become part of Vestland county. Bordering previous counties Møre og Romsdal, Oppland, Buskerud, and Hordaland, the cou ...

. Norwegian painter

Adelsteen Normann Eilert Adelsteen Normann (1 May 1848 – 26 December 1918) was a Norwegian painter who worked in Berlin. He was a noted painter of landscapes of Norway. Normann was the artist who invited Edvard Munch to Berlin, where he painted ''The Scream''. ...

had settled in Balestrand during 1891. Dahl's villa was of a similar design to the villa built for Normann. Between 1888 and 1919, Dahl lived mostly in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, and spent only the summer in Balestrand. After 1919, Dahl no longer traveled to Berlin. Balestrand became a much visited tourist destination in western Norway. German emperor,

Kaiser Wilhelm II Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor (german: Kaiser) and List of monarchs of Prussia, King of Prussia, reigning from 15 June 1888 until Abdication of Wilhelm II, his abdication on 9 ...

, became one of Dahl's patrons, conferring a professorship upon him in 1910, and visiting Dahl in Balestrand several summers in a row. Bundesarchiv N 1572 Bild-1925-127, Polarfahrt Dampfer

Bundesarchiv N 1572 Bild-1925-127, Polarfahrt Dampfer

Dahl resisted the transition in art from

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

Modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

. In the 1890s a new school of art arose, and artists like Dahl were not very popular in the leading circles in the capital. He was particularly criticised by the art historian

Jens Thiis Jens Thiis (12 May 1870 – 27 June 1942) was a Norwegian art historian, conservator and a prominent museum director. He was conservator at the Nordenfjeld Industrial Arts Museum (''Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum'') in Trondheim beginnin ...

. He was severely criticized by fellow artists especially by

Christian Krohg Christian Krohg (13 August 1852 – 16 October 1925) was a Norwegian naturalist painter, illustrator, author and journalist. Krohg was inspired by the realism art movement and often chose motifs from everyday life. He was the director and s ...

, who was one of the leading figures in the transition from

romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

to naturalism which characterized Norwegian art in this period. Throughout his life, he increasingly narrowed his range of topics. Dahl often described the scenery of the western part of Norway in brilliant sunshine with smiling people in national costumes. His vibrant colors and charming portrayals of young Norwegian girls in their national costume have always been very popular.

Personal life

Hans Dahl was married to Helene Bewer, the daughter of the German painter

Clemens Bewer Lambert Clemens Jakob Bewer (30 May 1820, Aachen – 2 September 1884, Bonn) was a German history and portrait painter, in the Romanticism, Romantic style. Biography He began his art studies in the master class of Karl Ferdinand Sohn at the K ...

(1820–1884). Their son was the Norwegian painter (1881–1919), who died of tuberculosis at the age of 37. In 1902 Dahl was appointed knight of the

Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a cit ...

, 1st class. Hans Dahl died in

during 1937. His grave is located in the churchyard of

Tjugum Church Tjugum Church ( no, Tjugum kyrkje) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Sogndal Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located just outside the Balestrand (village), village of Balestrand. It is one of two churches for the Balestr ...

. Hans Dahl
''Salmonsens konversationsleksikon'' File:Dahl Hans (Norwegian) 1849 to 1937 By The FJord O C 49.5 by 67.3 cm.jpg, ''By the Fjord'' File:Hans Dahl - By the Water's Edge.jpg, ''By the Water's Edge'' File:Hans Dahl - Fiord with sailing boat.jpg, ''Fjord with sailing boat'' File:Hans Dahl - Upon sunny waves.jpg, ''Upon Sunny Waves'' File:Dahl Hans - Beim Heutransport 52x36cm.jpg, ''Transporting Hay '' File:Dahl Hans 1901 41x68cm.jpg, ''Boating in Balestrand'' File:On the Mountaintop.jpg, ''On the Mountaintop'' File:Dahl Hans - Sognefjord von seinem Grundstück in Balestrand 1920 21x30cm.jpg, ''Sognefjord Near Summer Home in Balestrand'' File:Hans-dahl peasant-girl.jpg, ''Peasant Girl'' File:Hans Dahl - On the banks of the Fjord.jpg, ''On the banks of the Fjord'' File:Hans-Dahl sommerwind.jpg, ''Sommerwind'' File:On the Fjord by Hans Dahl.jpg, ''On the Fjord''

References

;Attribution

External links

Villa StrandheimTjugum kyrkje
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dahl, Hans 1849 births 1937 deaths People from Granvin Kunstakademie Düsseldorf alumni Düsseldorf school of painting Norwegian landscape painters 19th-century Norwegian painters 20th-century Norwegian painters Norwegian male painters Norwegian expatriates in Germany Order of Saint Olav 19th-century Norwegian male artists 20th-century Norwegian male artists