Johan Christian Clausen Dahl

Johan Christian Clausen Dahl (1788 Bergen - Dresden 1857) - Horseman in front of an evening sky. Oil on wood. 1824. 17.8 x 20.6 cm. Signed and dated lower right. Framed. When Dahl came to Dresden in 1818, his free, naturalistic oil studies caused quite a stir. In Italy, where he spent ten months in 1820/21 at the invitation of the Danish crown prince Christian Frederick, he developed an even more direct style of painting. In this small, clearly structured composition, he depicts a single figure, a rider on horseback, surrounded by peaceful, contemplative nature in the spirit of Romanticism. As he crosses a mountain pass, the evening sky, probably painted by Dahl en plein air on the canvas, is already turning pinkish-yellow. Literature: Marie Lødrup Bang, Johan Christian Dahl. 1788-1857, Life and Works, Oslo 1987, Vol. 2, p. 157, cat. no. 449. Exhibition: A Century of Romantic Painting from Martin v. Rohden (1778-1868) to Louis Kolitz (1845-1914), Städtische Kunstsammlungen, Kassel 1952, cat. no. 27; Classicism and Romanticism in Germany. Paintings from the Georg Schäfer Collection, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg 1966, p. 68, cat. no. 28, color plate 28; Carl Gustav Carus and contemporary Dresden landscape painting. Paintings from the Georg Schäfer Collection, Altes Rathaus, Schweinfurt 1970, p. 38, cat. no. 21, with illus. Provenance: Benoni Friedländer, Berlin; Dr. Dr. Wilharn, Kassel, 1952, inscribed on the reverse of the frame; Neumeister & Gräf, Munich, auction, 5.11.1955; Georg Schäfer Collection, Schweinfurt (inv. no. 1946), with label on verso; Private collection, Southern Germany. Taxation: differential taxation (VAT: Margin Scheme)