Gudvangen

Thomas Fearnley's Gudvangen from 1839 captures the dramatic Norwegian fjord landscape that drew Romantic artists to Scandinavia's wilderness. Fearnley, Norway's finest Romantic landscape painter, studied in Dresden and Munich before extensive travels in Italy and his native Norway. His paintings of Norwegian fjords and mountains contributed to the Romantic discovery of Northern landscapes as subjects of sublime natural beauty.

The oil-on-paper study, laid down on wood, demonstrates Fearnley's fresh, direct approach to plein-air landscape painting. The bold brushwork captures the dramatic scale of the fjord with luminous atmospheric effects that convey the particular quality of Nordic light.