This is one of Dahl’s most iconic subjects, long seen as emblematic of Norway’s patient endurance of foreign rule. Although based on a nature study Dahl made in Germany in 1823 (now in the Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo), it was intended to evoke the landscape of Norway. The image of the single, heroic tree stems from seventeenth-century prototypes by Jacob van Ruisdael, who was in turn deeply influenced by his fellow Dutchman Allart van Everdingen, the first painter of Norway’s wild scenery.
There is a significantly larger version of this picture, also painted in 1849, in the KODE Art Museums of Bergen.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Birch Tree in a Storm
Artist:Johan Christian Dahl (Norwegian, Bergen 1788–1857 Dresden)
Date:1849
Medium:Oil on paper, laid down on cardboard
Dimensions:8 3/8 x 7 1/8 in. (21.3 x 18.1 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Thaw Collection, Jointly Owned by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Morgan Library & Museum, Gift of Eugene V. Thaw, 2009
Object Number:2009.400.32
Inscription: Initialled and dated (lower right): D. 1849.
private collection, Dresden; [Artemis Fine Arts, Inc., New York, by 1997–no later than 1999; sold to Thaw]; Eugene V. Thaw, New York (by 1999–2009)
New York. Artemis Fine Arts, Inc. "Selected 19th Century Paintings & Works on Paper," October 20–November 28, 1997, no. 11 (as "A Birch Tree in a Storm").
New York. Artemis Fine Arts, Inc. "Danish Paintings of the Golden Age," April 21–May 28, 1999, no. 18 (as "A Birch Tree in a Storm [Et birketræ i uvejr]," lent by a Private Collector, U.S.A.).
New York. Pierpont Morgan Library. "The Thaw Collection: Master Drawings and Oil Sketches, Acquisitions Since 1994," September 27, 2002–January 19, 2003, no. 85 (as "A Birch Tree in a Storm").
Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art. "The Romantic Prospect: Plein Air Painters, 1780–1850," June 22–August 15, 2004, no. 61 (as "A Birch Tree in a Storm").
Sydney. Art Gallery of New South Wales. "Plein-air Painting in Europe, 1780–1850," September 4–October 31, 2004, no. 61.
Melbourne. National Gallery of Victoria. "Plein-air Painting in Europe, 1780–1850," November 19, 2004–January 16, 2005, no. 61.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Peder Balke: Painter of Northern Light," April 10–July 10, 2017, no catalogue.
New York. Morgan Library & Museum. "Plein Air Sketching in the North," December 11, 2018–August 25, 2019, no catalogue.
New York. Morgan Library & Museum. "Sublime on the Small Scale: Oil Sketches from the Thaw Collection," September 29, 2020–September 12, 2021, no catalogue.
Selected 19th Century Paintings & Works on Paper. Exh. cat., Artemis Fine Arts, Inc. New York, 1997, unpaginated, no. 11, ill. (color) and on cover (color), identifies it as the heretofore unlocated work painted for Fräulein von Serger, Dresden (see Marie Lødrup Bang, "Johann Christian Dahl, 1788–1857: Life and Works," 3 vols., Oslo, 1987, vol. 2, pp. 324–25, no. 1090, vol. 3, pl. 466).
Suzanne Ludvigsen. Danish Paintings of the Golden Age. Exh. cat., Artemis Fine Arts, Inc. New York, 1999, unpaginated, no. 18, ill. (color), repeats that this work is identical with Ref. Bang 1987, no. 1090.
Kathleen Stuart inThe Thaw Collection: Master Drawings and Oil Sketches, Acquisitions Since 1994. Exh. cat., Pierpont Morgan Library. New York, 2002, pp. 186–87, no. 85, ill. (color), citing Ref. Bang 2001, disputes the identification of this work previously put forward in Refs. New York 1997 and Ludvigsen 1999 (as Ref. Bang 1987, no. 1090), stating that this is a further reduced variant of the primary version, Dahl's most famous composition, executed in 1849 (Bergen Billedgalleri, inv. 539, Ref. Bang 1987, no. 1091).
Charlotte Gere inPlein-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1850. Exh. cat., Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art. Shizuoka, 2004, p. 121, no. 61, ill. (color).
Esther Bell. "Catalogue Raisonné of the Thaw Collection." Studying Nature: Oil Sketches from the Thaw Collection. Ed. Jennifer Tonkovich. New York, 2011, p. 114, no. 39, ill. (color), calls it "Birch Tree in a Storm".
Johan Christian Dahl (Norwegian, Bergen 1788–1857 Dresden)
late 18th–19th century
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