Johan Christian Dahl

Johan Christian Dahl. Letter to Berlin Academy. August 22, 1846 [see Bang 1987], asks if there will be space to exhibit this painting and another one after the summer exhibition in Dresden.

"Review of Exh. Dresden 1846." Abendzeitung no. 38 (September 1846) [see Bang 1987].

Johan Christian Dahl. Letter to August Konow. November 2, 1846 [excerpt trans. in Bang 1987], writes to the Norwegian collector “I am pleased that you are now in possession of my big Tyrolean landscape [Bang 1987, no. 399], because nowadays I cannot paint such things, and not in the same manner since one changes over the years, and as the eyesight declines and spectacles are necessary, one must work in other directions. Imagine—the pendant is finished only this year, after having waited since 1824 or 1825 when the man who had ordered both paintings died. The pendant is the 'Harbor in Copenhagen in Moonlight' and is now in the exhibition in Berlin”.

Johan Christian Dahl. Diary entry. April 5, 1848 [see Bang 1987], mentions shipping it with other paintings to Christiania [Oslo].

Johan Christian Dahl. Letter to August Konow. September 7, 1850 [excerpt trans. in Bang 1987], offers it at a reduced price of 400 Spdl., writing “this painting has taken more time than two paintings of similar size, it is a kind of picture that I shall surely not be able to paint anymore. If it were not for the fact that it was already started, I should never have undertaken such work now with my weak eyes”.

Johan Christian Dahl. Letter to Christian Jürgensen Thomsen. April 15, 1851 [excerpt trans. in Bang 1987], proposes it to the scientist as part of an exhibition to honor a visit from the Czar, writing, “I sent it to be exhibited [in Christiania (Oslo)] in order to get it out of the way, because of the Democrats and the hostility towards Denmark, which was so great here a couple of years ago that I feared the picture might have been destroyed”.

Johan Christian Dahl. Diary entry. May 30, 1851 [see Bang 1987], mentions a letter to the Norwegian painter Hans Leganger Reusch about sending it to an exhibition in Trondheim.

Johan Christian Dahl. Letter to Hans Leganger Reusch. May 6, 1852 [see Bang 1987], asks him to send it to Christiania [Oslo] for the exhibition of Scandinavian art.

Johan Christian Dahl. Letter to Jens Peter Møller. May 14, 1852 [excerpt trans. in Bang 1987], proposes to the painter Møller, in Copenhagen, that the Danish king buy it “as a suitable present for the Swedish king who sided so warmly with the Danes in the controversy of the unjust German war”.

Johan Christian Dahl. Diary entry. December 24, 1854 [see Bang 1987], mentions a letter from his daughter, Caroline, in which she stated that this was one of three paintings by the artist now in her and her husband's custody.

"Review of Exh. Bergen 1865." Bergensposten no. 62 (1865) [see Bang 1987].

Carl Reitzel. Fortegnelse over Danske Kunstneres Arbejder paa de ved det Kgl. Akademi for de Skjønne Kunster i Aarene 1807–1882 afholdte Charlottenborg-Udstillinger. Copenhagen, 1883, p. 108.

Andreas Aubert. Maleren Johan Christian Dahl; et stykke av forrige aarhundredes kunst- og kulturhistorie. Kristiania [Oslo], 1920, pp. 422, 452.

Henrik Bramsen. Landskabsmaleriet i Danmark, 1750–1875. Copenhagen, 1935, p. 59 [see Bang 1987].

Johan H. Langaard. J. C. Dahl’s Verk. Exh. cat., Kunstnernes Hus. Oslo, [1937], p. 124, no. 559.

Frederik Weilbach. Kunstnerleksikon. Ed. Merete Bodelsen and Povl Engelstoft. Vol. 1, Copenhagen, 1947, p. 233 [see Bang 1987].

Marie Lødrup Bang. Johan Christian Dahl, 1788–1857: Life and Works. Oslo, 1987, vol. 1, pp. 80, 173; vol. 2, pp. 62, 143, 312, no. 1044, vol. 3, pl. 443, locates it in the collection of the artist’s descendants and publishes early manuscript references.

Johan Christian Dahl: Kistefos-Museet, Museum og Galleri. Ed. Nina Sørlie. Exh. cat., Kistefos-Museet. Jevnaker, Norway, 2000, p. 148, no. 29, ill. p. 121 (color).

Jan Drees in Johan Christian Dahl: Der Freund Caspar David Friedrichs. Ed. Herwig Guratzsch. Exh. cat., Schloss Gottorf, Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen, Schleswig. Cologne, 2002, p. 220, no. 67, ill. p. 113 (color).

Gifts of Art: The Met's 150th Anniversary. New York, 2020, p. 194.

Beyond the Light: Identity and Place in Nineteenth-Century Danish Art. Ed. Freyda Spira et al. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2023, p. 198, colorpl. 5.