Hans Dahl

1844 Granvin/Hardangerfjord, Norway – 1937 Ballstrand/Sognefjord, Norway

Wearing a wooden rake over her right shoulder and a bucket in her left hand, a farmer girl strolls barefoot over the meadows of a summer fjord landscape covered with wild flowers and herbs. She walks towards the beholder. In the background blue grey mountains emerge above the bay. A wind gust blows the girl’s skirt and apron and swirls her flaxen hair. Hans Dahl’s artistic approach, a light but clear-cut naturalism, becomes apparent in this painting. With its lilac, yellow and orange spotted blossoms, the foreground is kept in an Impressionist style that conveys a sweet-smelling mood.

Hans Dahl received a comprehensive art education during his service as infantry lieutenant. Before leaving the army in 1874 he studied under the painters Johan Fredrik Eckersberg and Knud Bergslien as well as at the Royal Art and Vocational School in Kristiania. Afterwards he moved to the classes of Wilhelm Riefstahl and Hans Fredrik Gude at the Karlsruhe Academy. In 1873, he began his studies under Eduard von Gebhardt and Wilhelm Sohn at the Arts Academy Düsseldorf. It was in 1876 when Hans Dahl presented his paintings for the first time to the public in Düsseldorf and Philadelphia.

Soon Hans Dahl developed his own pictorial style: Figures in the sunshine at sea and in the mountains which he often combined with sceneries of Bergen monastery where he spent almost every summer. In 1910, he was appointed professor by Emperor William II in Berlin. Only few of his paintings can be found in Norway where he rarely exhibited. Most of his works are in Germany and the USA.