Feige Waterfall (Feigefossen), Lysterfjord, Norway

1848

Feige Waterfall (Feigefossen), Lysterfjord, Norway, 1848. Johan Christian Clausen Dahl (Norwegian, 1788–1857). Oil on canvas; 42 x 58 cm (16 9/16 x 22 13/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Sundry Art - Miscellaneous Fund 2019.76 Johan Christian Dahl painted this dramatic view of the Feige Waterfall at Lysterfjord, one of the most spectacular natural wonders in his homeland, at time a when Norwegians were trying to foster awareness of their identity as a distinct national culture. Dahl’s views of Norway played a crucial role in establishing his reputation as the leading Norwegian artist of the period and one of most important landscape painters of the Romantic era. Set against a magnificent mountain cliff, the waterfall empties into a broad fjord that stretches nearly 70 miles before reaching the ocean just north of Dahl’s hometown of Bergen.