Feige Waterfall (Feigefossen), Lysterfjord, Norway (1848): Art, History and Details

Feige Waterfall (Feigefossen), Lysterfjord, Norway (1848) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Johan Christian Clausen Dahl (Norwegian, 1788–1857).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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.

Object facts

• Title: Feige Waterfall (Feigefossen), Lysterfjord, Norway
• Date: 1848
• Creator attribution: Johan Christian Clausen Dahl (Norwegian, 1788–1857)
• Culture: Norway
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Oil on canvas
• Dimensions: 42 x 58 cm (16 9/16 x 22 13/16 in.)
• Collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960
• Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 2019.76

A detail from the museum

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.

Collection credit

Sundry Art - Miscellaneous Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Imhof, Michael. Die Malerei der Romantik: von Friedrich bis Turner. Petersberg, Deutschland: Michael Imhof Verlag, 2026.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.