View of Dresden by Moonlight by Johan Christian Dahl was created in 1839. The painting is in Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister Dresden. The size of the work is 78 x 130 cm and is made of oil on canvas.
About the Work
Silhouetted against the blue night sky with the moon peeping through between the torn clouds is Dresden’s distinctive skyline and the landmarks that define it. This view with the Frauenkirche, the Hofkirche, the Augustus Bridge and the River Elbe had been made famous by Bernardo Bellotto’s monumental painting of 1748 became widely known. As idealised as the fairy-tale city appears in this mysterious nocturnal scene. Dahl is interested in the many different renditions of light that are possible in painting: in the moon, in the edges of the clouds and in the water.
Like so many artists, Johan Christian Dahl (1788 –1857) was drawn to Dresden by its many art treasures. He arrived in 1818. Apart from visits to Italy and his native Norway, Dahl was to spend the rest of his life – nearly forty years altogether – in Dresden and there became a close friend of Caspar David Friedrich. Read more in Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister Dresden
About the Artist
Johan Christian Claussen Dahl (24 February 1788 – 14 October 1857), often known as J. C. Dahl or I. C. Dahl, was a Danish-Norwegian artist who is considered the first great romantic painter in Norway, the founder of the “golden age” of Norwegian painting. He is often described as “the father of Norwegian landscape painting” and is regarded as the first Norwegian painter to reach a level of artistic accomplishment comparable to that attained by the greatest European artists of his day. He was also the first to acquire genuine fame and cultural renown abroad. As one critic has put it, “J.C. Dahl occupies a central position in Norwegian artistic life of the first half of the 19th century. Read more in Wikipedia
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