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1863 - 1944

Edvard Munch

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Norwegian painter, art theorist, graphic and theatre artist. One of the first representatives of Expressionism and Symbolism, and one whose work influenced modern art. In Europe, he was recognized as the creator of a new era. One of his best-known works is “The Scream” of 1893, a mysterious picture filled with horror and panic.

When Munch was young, he showed excellent achievements in physics, chemistry and mathematics. However, he had always dreamt of becoming a painter.

Munch’s paintings are almost always gloomy. They represent themes of death and loneliness, but, at the same time, they are full of a hidden thirst for life. After his parents and sister had passed away, the artist often suffered from hallucinations and wanted to commit suicide…

“My father was a very quick-tempered and deeply religious person. From him, I inherited the sprouts of insanity. The spirits of fear, sorrow and death surrounded me from the moment of birth,” recalled Munch about his childhood.

Munch had become famous at the age of 70. His works influenced the contemporary arts.

In Oslo, Munch’s Museum was opened, with nearly 1100 paintings and 4,500 drawings, as well as 18,000 graphic files and personal belongings of the artist, bequeathed to the city. Munch’s works, which did not belong to any societies or associations of artists, influenced the contemporary art of not only his country and Europe, but the whole world.

Munch’s paintings were stolen by robbers several times.

Key ideas:

– Munch associated love and pregnancy with death. He thought that as soon as a woman gives birth to a child, her life ends.

– His arts consists of symbols and allegories. Munch’s favourite topics are loneliness, thoughts about death and, at the same time, a love for life. He was convinced that art can and should express other ideas than sunny carelessness, an Impressionistic detachment from problems, jumping into exotics (typical of Gauguin), or historical dreams (typical of Böcklin). He also discards everything that resembles banal Realism, although he does not run away from life at all, but finds inner liberation, depicting his personal hell and his imprisonment.

– The artist usually depicted the protagonist in the foreground and something reminding him of the past behind.

– Munch liked to experiment with different styles and colours. Occasionally, this was met with disapproval from critics.

– Some art experts claim that the main aim of the painter was to depict his own life.

– In his diary, famously known as “The Saint Cloud Manifesto”, the artist wrote: “Do not paint interiors, reading men or knitting women.” Instead, we need “real people who breathe, feel, love, suffer …”. This sentiment is particularly well represented in his work “Night in Saint-Cloud”.

– The firm “symbolist-expressionistic” style of the Norwegian was finally formed. In this style, lines are expressive, shapes are simplified, and stories are allegorical but simple. Such are the works of the cycle “The Frieze of Life”, especially “Sick mood at sunset” – the canvas that later inspired the artist to create his famous “Scream”.

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1863

1881

1883

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1889

1892

1893

1896

1906

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1916

1940

1944

The birth of the artist

The artist was born on the 12th of December in 1863 in Adalsbruk, Løten, United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway.

He enrolled in the Royal School of Painting

In 1879 Munch entered a technical college, where he excelled in physics, chemistry and mathematics. However, he soon decided to leave the college and become an artist. He enrolled in the Royal School of Painting in Christiania.

“Study of the head”

The public debut of the artist. He presented a painting entitled “Study of the head” at the exhibition of industrial goods and works of art in the Palace Park. This drew the ire of his religious father.

His elder sister Sophie died

When the artist was young, his elder sister Sophie died. Feeling broken, he created one of his most famous paintings – “The sick child”. Munch devoted it to his sister. Within the next 40 years, the artist depicted Sophie’s final days six times. “I … again and again tried to express the first impression – a transparent, pale skin on a white background, trembling lips, trembling hands,” he wrote.

In 1885, Munch organized an exhibition in Oslo. There, art experts and press considered his work the fruit of a sick imagination, gloomy and cruel.

He suffered through the death of his father

Munch attended an art school and exhibition in Paris. The artist led a bohemian lifestyle. However, he suffered through the death of his father, and was stricken with hallucinations and suicidal thoughts.

«Frieze of Life»

The beginning of the period which Munch later called the “Frieze of Life”. During this period, he depicted his major themes: the stages of life, the femme fatale, the hopelessness of love, anxiety, infidelity, jealousy, sexual humiliation, and separation in life and death. These themes are expressed in paintings such as “Vampire” (1893–94), “Ashes” (1894), and “The Bridge”.

There was a solo exhibition in Christiania, as a result of which Munch was invited to Berlin. There he immersed himself in the life of the artistic “underground”. Later his works were successfully exhibited in Dusseldorf and Munich, Breslau and Copenhagen.

The first version of “The Scream”

The first version of “The Scream” was painted. There are four versions of this painting in total.

The first big success

The first big success at the exhibition in Paris, after which the artist was called the founder of Expressionism. Recognition, fame and money came, but health, especially the mental side, worsened.

Bought a secluded house in Osgordrand

Bought a secluded house in Osgordrand. It became his shelter from people. There he experienced fears and hallucinations and had to visit a mental specialist.

Munch participated in the international exhibition in San Francisco

Munch participated in the international exhibition in San Francisco. He traveled, returned to Norway exhausted and bought a villa near Oslo, where he was carried away by agriculture on his vast lands. Then the artist gave a series of monumental canvases to the University of Oslo.

The artist’s style changed, becoming harsher and ruder

The artist’s style changed, becoming harsher and ruder. His canvases from this period were created with wide strokes. They are chock full of contrasting and vivid colors. However, the stories become more peaceful, even ordinary. Later he depicted workers, peasants, and their life in nature. A cycle of monumental canvases now adorns the concert hall of the Oslo University.

He almost stopped painting

Munch’s eye started bleeding and he almost stopped painting. He only drew sketches depicting distorted shapes. Occupying Norway, Germans praised the artist, calling him “truly Nordic”. However, later they considered Munch “a representative of degenerate art”, making him spend his last years in anxious fear that his works and villa would be confiscated.