In the 19th century, Norway was a predominantly rural country, providing very limited opportunities for the development of its painters. Up until 1880, nearly all Norwegian artists of importance therefore went to the art academies in Germany.

Arriving in Dresden, the centre of romantic landscape painting, back in 1818, the Norwegian painter Johan Christian Dahl went on to become a professor and a close friend of Caspar David Friedrich. Like many German artists, Dahl took frequent study trips to Scandinavia.

The 1840s saw the first Norwegian arrivals in Düsseldorf, which attracted artists from all over the world; the Swedes followed a few years later. Here they would become familiar with the tools necessary for the portrayal of the Nordic landscape and peasant life. These subjects were closely related to the search for a separate national identity.