Cloud Study, Thunder Clouds over the Palace Tower at Dresden

Dahl visited Italy and was fascinated by his impressions of the ever-changing landscape there. It was not the classical landscape but the landscape of light and the different morphology between Italy and the North that inspired him to paint, mostly in small format. Dahl soon became the most famous Norwegian artist of his time, and he is often seen as a forerunner of plein air painting. He was a master of vivid sketches from nature, and practiced a more naturalistic painting than Caspar David Friedrich.