| View from Stalheim | |
| Other Language 1: | Norwegian |
| Other Title 1: | Fra Stalheim |
| Artist: | Johan Christian Dahl |
| Medium: | Oil on canvas |
| Height Metric: | 190 |
| Width Metric: | 246 |
| Metric Unit: | cm |
| Imperial Unit: | in |
| City: | Oslo |
| Museum: | National Gallery of Norway |
| Accession: | NG.M.01060 |
View from Stalheim (Norwegian: '''Fra Stalheim''') is an 1842 oil painting by Johan Christian Dahl of the mountainous view from Stalheim, Voss, Hordaland. It is a major work of Romantic nationalism and has become a national icon. It is regarded as one of Dahl's best works.
The painting shows the view from the peak at Stalheim over the Nærøy Valley towards the sugarloaf-shaped peak of Jordalsnuten[1] [2] in late afternoon sunshine, framed by peaks and a rainbow. The sun shines on a small village near the centre. Dahl has clearly delineated figures and buildings even in the distance, creating "a world in miniature".[3] One of his purposes was realism; the other was to capture the glory and magnificence of the mountains, and associated with that, of his country's culture.[3] [4] [5] In this evocation of grandeur the painting prefigures later US landscapes, in particular Church's Rainy Season in the Tropics (1866), which has a similar crowning rainbow.[3] [6] The rainbow itself, a symbol of reconciliation, peace, and in Christianity of God's grace,[7] was also frequently used by Joseph Anton Koch and by Dahl's friend and associate Caspar David Friedrich.[8]
Dahl began work on the painting in 1836 and completed it in 1842.[9] [10] It is based on two pencil and watercolour sketches he had made from the Gudvangen road in July 1826[11] [12] [13] during his first visit to the high mountain regions of Norway. The final version is close to the studies in both composition and details, including the sunlight highlighting the village;[3] but Dahl has intensified the imagery by narrowing the valley, giving more prominence to the Jordalsnuten peak and less to the reappearance of the river from the shadows.[4]
Dahl had trouble with the painting and avoided similarly large works after its completion.[14]
The painting was made for Countess Wedel of Bogstad.[14] Carl Gustav Wedel-Jarlsberg gave it to the National Gallery of Norway in 1914.[15]
The painting is regarded as one of Dahl's best,[16] [17] perhaps his most successful realisation of his aim of depicting the mountains both realistically and as national symbols.[3] [5] It has become a national icon.[6] [7] Other painters have also depicted the scene,[1] and even more than his other Norwegian landscapes, this one drove tourists to visit the site: the luxury hotel built at Stalheim in 1885 is attributable to it.[4]