View of the Mårelv near Tinn

Though he spent most of his life outside of his native Norway, Dahl is considered ‘the father of Norwegian landscape painting.' The artist was born into a family of modest means in Bergen, and because Norway lacked a national Academy to train artists, Dahl’s travel and schooling at the Danish Academy were financed by a group of well-to-do local citizens who noticed the young artist’s talent. In 1826, the artist was able to return to Norway for the first time since he had left 15 years prior for Denmark. During this trip he made the drawing which provided the basis for the present painting, which was completed in 1833. Dahl held that a landscape painting should not just depict a specific view but should also say something about the land itself–the greatness of its past and the life and work of its current inhabitants. Dahl’s love for his native land is clear in the motifs he chose for his paintings of Norway and in his extraordinary efforts on behalf of Norwegian culture generally.