JOHAN CHRISTIAN CLAUSEN DAHL (BERGEN 1788-1857 DRESDEN)
JOHAN CHRISTIAN CLAUSEN DAHL (BERGEN 1788-1857 DRESDEN)
JOHAN CHRISTIAN CLAUSEN DAHL (BERGEN 1788-1857 DRESDEN)
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This lot is offered without reserve.
JOHAN CHRISTIAN CLAUSEN DAHL (BERGEN 1788-1857 DRESDEN)

Esrom Lake, Moonlight

Details
JOHAN CHRISTIAN CLAUSEN DAHL (BERGEN 1788-1857 DRESDEN)
Esrom Lake, Moonlight
signed and dated 'Dahl/1814' (lower center)
oil on panel
18 7/8 x 25 1/4 in. (47.7 x 64.1 cm.)
Provenance
P. B. Petersen, Engelholm.
Christian Langaard (1849-1922), Kristiania, acquired in Copenhagen in 1918.
His sale, Wangs Kunst og Antikvitetshandel, Kristiania, 12 May 1924, lot 13, as Maaneskinslandskap.
Sverre Young (1876-1958), Oslo.
Private collection, Oslo, 1974.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 28 June 1999, lot 13.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.
Literature
P. Hjort, Kritiske Bidrag til nyere dansk Taenkemaade og Dannelses Historie, Copenhagen, 1854, p. 14.
C. Reitzel, Fortegnelse over Danske Kunstneres Arbejder paa de ved det Kgl. Akademi for de Skjönne Kunster i Aarene 1807-1882 afholdte Charlottenborg-Udstillinger, Copenhagen, 1883, p. 104, as Maaneskinsstykke. Udsigt ved Esrom Sø.
A. Aubert, Maleren Johan Christian Dahl. Et stykke av forrige Aarhundredes Kunst-og Kulturhistorie, Kristiania, 1920, pp. 27, 456, illustrated, as Maaneskinslandskap.
L. Østby, 'J. C. Dahl's Danske Laerear', Kunstmuseets Arsskrift, Oslo, 1974, pp. 6, 22, no. 26, fig. 2, illustrated, as Et Maaneskin Stykke. Udsigten er tagen efter Naturen ved Esrom Søe.
M. Lødrup Bang, Johan Christian Dahl 1788-1857, Life and Works, Oslo, 1987, vol. 2, pp. 49-50, no. 61; and vol. 3, pl. 27, illustrated, as Esrom Lake in Moonlight.
L. Røndberg, K. Monrad, and R. Linnet, Two Golden Ages, Masterpieces of Dutch and Danish Painting, Zwolle, 2001, p. 33, fig. 7, illustrated.
Exhibited
Copenhagen, Kongelige Academie for de skiönne Kunster, 1815, no. 26, as Et Maaneskin Stykke/ Udsigten er tagen efter Naturen ved Esrom Søe.
Oslo, Nasjonalsgalleriet, J.C. Dahl og Danmark, 3 February-11 March 1973, no. 13; also Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst, 1 April-13 May 1973, no. 26, pp. 12-13, 27, illustrated, as Et Maaneskin Stykke/ Udsigten er tagen efter Naturen ved Esrom Søe.
Oslo, Nasjonalsgalleriet, J. C. Dahl 1788-1857: Jubileumsutstilling, 27 February-1 May 1988; also Bergen, Billedgalleri, 19 May-3 July 1988, p. 91, no. 10, as Esrom sjø. 1814 (Esrom Lake in Moonlight).
Kvinnherad, Baroniet Rosendal, J.C. Dahl: Hans danske miljø og det danske landskap, 1995, no. 18, as Esrom Sø i Måneskinn.
Special notice
This lot is offered without reserve.

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Lot Essay


The present work was painted only a few years after Dahl’s move in 1811 to Denmark to study at the Academy in Copenhagen. Born into a family of modest means in his native Norway, and without a national Academy to train artists in his home country, Dahl’s travel and schooling were financed by a group of well-to-do local citizens who noticed the young artist’s talent. His time at the Danish Academy was foundational for Dahl, as were trips to the countryside around Copenhagen, and his experience seeing works in the Danish royal collection firsthand. The collection’s particular strength was in works from the Dutch Golden Age, and Jacob van Ruisdael and Albert van Everdingen were important early influences on the young artist.

Depicting Lake Esrum, Denmark’s largest lake, in the countryside north of Copenhagen, the present painting is a wonderful early example of the kind of moonlight scenes that Dahl would become famous for later in his career. Dahl himself was particularly pleased with this work, writing in a letter that it had ‘a tranquility and calm…which lends it a serenity and beauty….’ Though the artist would not meet the great German painter Caspar David Friedrich until several years later, the foundation of their shared Romantic vocabulary of moonlit scenes was already well-established in Dahl’s oeuvre.

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