View from Stalheim

The painting shows the view from the peak at Stalheim over the Nærøydalen 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]