Hans Dahl

Hans Dahl painted the fjords of western Norway in bright summer sunshine, often with young women in national costume, boats on still water and mountains rising steeply behind. His pictures are clean, cheerful and detailed.

He was born in Granvin, Norway, in 1849 and trained at the Düsseldorf Academy and in Karlsruhe with the landscape painter Hans Gude. He lived for many years in Berlin and spent his summers at Balestrand on the Sognefjord, where he built a villa. Kaiser Wilhelm II was an admirer, visited him there and gave him the title of professor in 1910. Dahl kept to his romantic, detailed style all his life and did not follow modern trends.

In Calm Waters and Regatta on a Norwegian Fjord are typical. Look at the reflections in the water and the clear light on the mountains. He died in Balestrand in 1937.