[3][4][5] In this evocation of grandeur the painting prefigures later US landscapes, in particular Church's Rainy Season in the Tropics (1866), which has a similar crowning rainbow.

[3][6] The rainbow itself, a symbol of reconciliation, peace, and in Christianity of God's grace,[7] was also frequently used by Joseph Anton Koch and by Dahl's friend and associate Caspar David Friedrich.

[9][10] It is based on two pencil and watercolour sketches he had made from the Gudvangen road in July 1826[11][12][13] during his first visit to the high mountain regions of Norway.

The final version is close to the studies in both composition and details, including the sunlight highlighting the village;[3] but Dahl has intensified the imagery by narrowing the valley, giving more prominence to the Jordalsnuten peak and less to the reappearance of the river from the shadows.

[6][7] Other painters have also depicted the scene,[1] and even more than his other Norwegian landscapes, this one drove tourists to visit the site: the luxury hotel built at Stalheim in 1885 is attributable to it.