35. Johan Christian Dahl

Bergen 1788 – 1857 Dresden

View in a Grotto in Posillipo, 1821

Dahl’s year-long Italian sojourn in 1820-21 was funded by a travel stipend from the Danish crown prince, Christian Frederik (1786–1848). He spent much of this time in the city of Naples and its surroundings, which presented the artist with a wealth of motifs for his plein air landscape oil sketches. These two studies (cat. 34 and 35) depict the interior of one of the many volcanic tuff grottoes in the region and were painted on the very same day, 17 January 1821. Just a few days earlier, Dahl had written in his diary that: “From today, this 9th of January onwards, I must be doubly diligent [...]. I wish to paint large studies of trees, plants, animals and human figures – [...] practice my hand in the rendering of colouristic nuances and effects, light conditions, moonshine pieces.”1 The results of Dahl’s diligence are evident in these two studies, which display the artist’s mastery in the handling of paint and ability to capture fleeting effects. With a relatively broad range of colour and a spontaneous brush, Dahl carefully captured the interplay of light and shadow modelling the walls of the grotto. Both sketches offer glimpses of distant landscapes through openings on the left, adding a sense of depth to the compositions.

1https://test.daxermarschall.com/en/portfolio-view/johan-christian-dahl-sold-2/, cited after Jan Drees, ‘Johan Christian Dahl und sein Weg zur Natur’, in Wolken Wogen Wehmut, Johan Christian Dahl 1788-1857, exh. cat., Schleswig, Schloss Gottdorf, Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseen, Munich, Haus der Kunst, 2002, p. 21.