Feige Waterfall (Feigefossen), Lysterfjord, Norway

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

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.