Edvard Munch 1

Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch

Munch in 1921Born 12 December 1863Ådalsbruk in Løten, Norway

Died 23 January 1944 (aged 80)Oslo, Norway

Nationality Norwegian

Field Painting

Movement Expressionism

Works The Scream

Edvard Munch (Norwegian pronunciation: [ˈmuŋk], 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944)[1] was a NorwegianSymbolist painter, printmaker and an important forerunner of expressionist art. His best-known composition, TheScream, is part of a series The Frieze of Life, in which Munch explored the themes of love, fear, death, melancholia,and anxiety.

Biography

ChildhoodEdvard Munch was born in a rustic farmhouse in the village of Ådalsbruk in Løten, Norway to Christian Munch, theson of a priest. Christian was a doctor and medical officer who married Laura Catherine Bjølstad, a woman half hisage, in 1861. Edvard had an older sister, Johanne Sophie (born 1862), and three younger siblings: Peter Andreas(born 1865), Laura Catherine (born 1867), and Inger Marie (born 1868). Both Sophie and Edvard appear to haveinherited their artistic talent from their mother. Edvard Munch was related to painter Jacob Munch (1776–1839) andhistorian Peter Andreas Munch (1810–1863).[2]

The family moved to Christiania (now Oslo) in 1864 when Christian Munch was appointed medical officer atAkershus Fortress. Edvard’s mother died of tuberculosis in 1868, as did Munch's favorite sister Johanne Sophie in1877.[3] After their mother's death, the Munch siblings were raised by their father and by their aunt Karen. Often illfor much of the winters and kept out of school, Edvard would draw to keep himself occupied, and received tutoringfrom his school mates and his aunt. Christian Munch also instructed his son in history and literature, and entertainedthe children with vivid ghost stories and tales of Edgar Allan Poe.[4]

Christian’s positive behavior toward his children, however, was overshadowed by his morbid pietism. Munch wrote, “My father was temperamentally nervous and obsessively religious—to the point of psychoneurosis. From him I inherited the seeds of madness. The angels of fear, sorrow, and death stood by my side since the day I was born.”[5]

Christian reprimanded his children by telling them that their mother was looking down from heaven and grieving over their misbehavior. The oppressive religious milieu, plus Edvard’s poor health and the vivid ghost stories, helped

Edvard Munch 2

inspire macabre visions and nightmares in Edvard, who felt death constantly advancing on him.[6] One of Munch'syounger sisters was diagnosed with mental illness at an early age. Of the five siblings only Andreas married, but hedied a few months after the wedding. Munch would later write, "I inherited two of mankind's most frightfulenemies—the heritage of consumption and insanity."[7]

Christian Munch’s military pay was very low, and his attempts at developing a private side practice failed, keepinghis family in perennial poverty.[3] They moved frequently from one sordid flat to another. Munch’s early drawingsand watercolors depicted these interiors, and the individual objects such as medicine bottles and drawingimplements, plus some landscapes. By his teens, art dominated Munch’s interests.[8] At thirteen, Munch had his firstexposure to other artists at the newly formed Art Association, where he admired the work of the Norwegianlandscape school. He returned to copy the paintings, and soon he began to paint in oils.[9]

Studies and influences

Self Portrait with Skeleton Arm, 1895

In 1879 Munch enrolled in a technical college to study engineering,where he excelled in physics, chemistry, and math. He learned scaledand perspective drawing, but frequent illnesses interrupted hisstudies.[10] The following year, much to his father’s disappointment,Munch left the college determined to become a painter. His fatherviewed art as an “unholy trade”, and his neighbors reacted bitterly andsent him anonymous letters.[11] In contrast to his father’s rabid pietism,Munch adopted an undogmatic stance toward art, writing in his diaryhis simple goal: “in my art I attempt to explain life and its meaning tomyself.”[10]

In 1881, Munch enrolled at the Royal School of Art and Design ofChristiania, one of whose founders was his distant relative JacobMunch. His teachers were sculptor Julius Middelthun and naturalisticpainter Christian Krohg.[12] That year Munch demonstrated his quickabsorption of his figure training at the Academy in his first portraits,including one of his father and his first self-portrait. In 1883, Munchtook part in his first public exhibition and shared a studio with otherstudents.[13] His full-length portrait of Karl Jensen-Hjell, a notorious bohemian-about-town, earned a critic’sdismissive response: “It is impressionism carried to the extreme. It is a travesty of art.”[14] Munch’s nude paintingsfrom this period survive only in sketches, except for Standing Nude (1887), perhaps confiscated by his father.[15]

During these early years in his career, Munch experimented with many styles, including Naturalism andImpressionism. Some early works are reminiscent of Manet. Many of these attempts brought him unfavorablecriticism from the press and garnered him constant rebukes by his father, who nonetheless provided him with smallsums for living expenses.[14] At one point, however, Munch’s father, perhaps swayed by the negative opinion ofMunch's cousin Edvard Diriks (an established, traditional painter), destroyed at least one painting (likely a nude) andrefused to advance any more money for art supplies.[16]

Munch also received his father’s ire for his relationship with Hans Jæger, the local nihilist who lived by the code “a passion to destroy is also a creative passion” and who advocated suicide as the ultimate way to freedom.[17] Munch came under his malevolent, anti-establishment spell. “My ideas developed under the influence of the bohemians or rather under Hans Jaeger. Many people have mistakenly claimed that my ideas were formed under the influence of Strindberg and the Germans…but that is wrong. They had already been formed by then.”[18] At that time, contrary to many of the other bohemians, Munch was still respectful of women, as well as reserved and well-mannered, but he began to give in to the binge drinking and brawling of his circle. He was unsettled by the sexual revolution going on at the time and by the independent women around him. He later turned cynical concerning sexual matters, expressed

Edvard Munch 3

not only in his behavior and his art, but in his writings as well, an example being a long poem called The City of FreeLove.[19] Still dependent on his family for many of his meals, Munch’s relationship with his father remained tenseover concerns about his bohemian life.After numerous experiments, Munch concluded that the Impressionist idiom did not allow sufficient expression. Hefound it superficial and too akin to scientific experimentation. He felt a need to go deeper and explore situationsbrimming with emotional content and expressive energy. Under Jaeger’s commandment that Munch should “write hislife”, meaning that Munch should explore his own emotional and psychological state, Munch began a period ofreflection and self-examination, recording his thoughts in his “soul’s diary”.[20] This deeper perspective helped movehim to a new view of his art. He wrote that his painting The Sick Child (1886), based on his sister’s death, was hisfirst “soul painting”, his first break from Impressionism. The painting received a negative response from critics andfrom his family, and caused another “violent outburst of moral indignation” from the community.[21] Only his friendChristian Krohg defended him:

He paints, or rather regards, things in a way that is different from that of other artists. He sees only theessential, and that, naturally, is all he paints. For this reason Munch’s pictures are as a rule ‘notcomplete’, as people are so delighted to discover for themselves. Oh, yes, they are complete. Hiscomplete handiwork. Art is complete once the artist has really said everything that was on his mind, andthis is precisely the advantage Munch has over painters of the other generation, that he really knowshow to show us what he has felt, and what has gripped him, and to this he subordinates everythingelse.[22]

Munch continued to employ a variety of brushstroke technique and color palettes throughout the 1880s and early1890s as he struggled to define his style.[23] His idiom continued to veer between naturalistic, as seen in Portrait ofHans Jæger, and impressionistic, as in Rue Lafayette. His Inger On the Beach (1889), which caused another storm ofconfusion and controversy, hints at the simplified forms, heavy outlines, sharp contrasts, and emotional content ofhis mature style to come.[24] He began to carefully calculate his compositions to create tension and emotion. Whilestylistically influenced by the Post-Impressionists, what evolved was a subject matter which was symbolist incontent, depicting a state of mind rather than an external reality. In 1889, Munch presented his first one-man show ofnearly all his works to date. The recognition it received led to a two-year state scholarship to study in Paris underFrench painter Léon Bonnat.[25]

ParisMunch arrived in Paris during the festivities of the Exposition Universelle (1889) and roomed with two fellowNorwegian artists. His picture Morning (1884) was displayed at the Norwegian pavilion.[26] He spent his mornings atBonnat’s busy studio (which included live female models) and afternoons at the exhibition, galleries, and museums(where students were to make copies).[27] Munch recorded little enthusiasm for Bonnat’s drawing lessons—“It tiresand bores me—it’s numbing’’—but enjoyed the master’s commentary during museum trips.[28] [29]

Munch was enthralled by the vast display of modern European art, including the works of three artists who wouldprove influential: Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec—all notable for how they usedcolor to convey emotion.[29] Munch was particularly inspired by Gauguin’s “reaction against realism” and his credothat “art was human work and not an imitation of Nature”, a belief earlier stated by Whistler.[30] As one of his Berlinfriends stated later about Munch, “he need not make his way to Tahiti to see and experience the primitive in humannature. He carries his own Tahiti within him.”[31]

That December, his father died, leaving Munch’s family destitute. He returned home and arranged a large loan from a wealthy Norwegian collector when wealthy relatives failed to help, and assumed financial responsibility for his family from then on.[32] Christian’s death depressed him and he was plagued by suicidal thoughts: “I live with the dead—my mother, my sister, my grandfather, my father…Kill yourself and then it’s over. Why live?”[33] Munch’s paintings of the following year included sketchy tavern scenes and a series of bright cityscapes in which he

Edvard Munch 4

experimented with the pointillist style of Georges Seurat.[34]

BerlinBy 1892, Munch formulated his characteristic, and original, Synthetist aesthetic, as seen in Melancholy, in whichcolor is the symbol-laden element. In 1892, Adelsteen Normann, on behalf of the Union of Berlin Artists invitedMunch to exhibit at its November exhibition,[35] the society’s first one-man exhibition. However, his paintingsevoked bitter controversy (dubbed “The Munch Affair”) and after one week the exhibition closed.[36] Munch waspleased with the “great commotion”, and wrote in a letter: “Never have I had such an amusing time—it’s incrediblethat something as innocent as painting should have created such a stir.”[37]

In Berlin, Munch involved himself in an international circle of writers, artists and critics, including the Swedishdramatist and leading intellectual August Strindberg, whom he painted in 1892. During his four years in Berlin,Munch sketched out most of the ideas that would comprise his major work, The Frieze of Life, first designed forbook illustration but later expressed in paintings.[38] He sold little, but made some income from charging entrancefees to view his controversial paintings.[39] Already, Munch was showing a reluctance to part with his paintings,which he termed his “children”.His other paintings, including casino scenes, show a simplification of form and detail which marked his early maturestyle.[40] Munch also began to favor a shallow pictorial space and a minimal backdrop for his frontal figures. Sinceposes were chosen to produce the most convincing images of states of mind and psychological conditions, as inAshes, the figures impart a monumental, static quality. Munch's figures appear to play roles on a theatre stage (Deathin the Sick-Room), whose pantomime of fixed postures signify various emotions; since each character embodies asingle psychological dimension, as in The Scream, Munch's men and women now appear more symbolic thanrealistic. He wrote, “No longer should interiors be painted, people reading and women knitting: there would be livingpeople, breathing and feeling, suffering and loving.”[41]

The Scream

The Scream (1893)

Painted in 1893, The Scream is Munch's most famouswork and one of the most recognizable paintings in all art.It has been widely interpreted as representing theuniversal anxiety of modern man.[41] Painted with broadbands of garish color and highly simplified forms, andemploying a high viewpoint, the agonized figure isreduced to a garbed skull in the throes of an emotionalcrisis. With this painting, Munch met his stated goal of“the study of the soul, that is to say the study of my ownself”.[42] Munch wrote of how the painting came to be: "Iwas walking down the road with two friends when thesun set; suddenly, the sky turned as red as blood. Istopped and leaned against the fence, feeling unspeakablytired. Tongues of fire and blood stretched over the bluishblack fjord. My friends went on walking, while I laggedbehind, shivering with fear. Then I heard the enormous,infinite scream of nature."[43] He later described thepersonal anguish behind the painting, “for several years Iwas almost mad…You know my picture, ‘’The Scream?’’

Edvard Munch 5

I was stretched to the limit—nature was screaming in my blood… After that I gave up hope ever of being able tolove again.”[44]

In summing up the painting’s impact author Martha Tedeschi has stated:" Whistler's Mother, Wood's AmericanGothic, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and Edvard Munch's The Scream have all achieved something that mostpaintings—regardless of their art historical importance, beauty, or monetary value—have not: they communicate aspecific meaning almost immediately to almost every viewer. These few works have successfully made the transitionfrom the elite realm of the museum visitor to the enormous venue of popular culture."[45]

Frieze of Life — A Poem about Life, Love and Death

In December 1893, Unter den Linden in Berlin held an exhibition of Munch's work, showing, among other pieces,six paintings entitled Study for a Series: Love. This began a cycle he later called the Frieze of Life — A Poem aboutLife, Love and Death. "Frieze of Life" motifs such as The Storm and Moonlight are steeped in atmosphere. Othermotifs illuminate the nocturnal side of love, such as Rose and Amelie and Vampire. In Death in the Sickroom, thesubject is the death of his sister Sophie, which he re-did in many future variations. The dramatic focus of thepainting, portraying his entire family, is dispersed in a series of separate and disconnected figures of sorrow. In 1894,he enlarged the spectrum of motifs by adding Anxiety, Ashes, Madonna and Women in Three Stages (from innocenceto old age).[46]

Around the turn of the century, Munch worked to finish the "Frieze". He painted a number of pictures, several ofthem in larger format and to some extent featuring the Art Nouveau aesthetics of the time. He made a wooden framewith carved reliefs for the large painting Metabolism (1898), initially called Adam and Eve. This work revealsMunch's preoccupation with the "fall of man" myth and his pessimistic philosophy of love. Motifs such as TheEmpty Cross and Golgotha (both c. 1900) reflect a metaphysical orientation, and also echo Munch's pietisticupbringing. The entire Frieze showed for the first time at the secessionist exhibition in Berlin in 1902.[47]

"The Frieze of Life" themes recur throughout Munch's work but find their strongest outpouring in the mid-1890s. Insketches, paintings, pastels and prints, he taps the depths of his feelings to examine his major motifs: the stages oflife, the femme fatale, the hopelessness of love, anxiety, infidelity, jealousy, sexual humiliation, and separation inlife and death.[48] These themes find expression in paintings such as The Sick Child (1885), Love and Pain(1893–94), Ashes (1894), and The Bridge. The latter shows limp figures with featureless or hidden faces, over whichloom the threatening shapes of heavy trees and brooding houses. Munch portrayed women either as frail, innocentsufferers (see Puberty and Love and Pain) or as the cause of great longing, jealousy and despair (see Separation,Jealousy and Ashes).Munch often uses shadows and rings of color around his figures to emphasize an aura of fear, menace, anxiety, orsexual intensity.[49] These paintings have been interpreted as reflections of the artist's sexual anxieties, though itcould also be argued that they are a better representation of his turbulent relationship with love itself and his generalpessimism regarding human existence.[50] Many of these sketches and paintings were done in several versions, suchas Madonna, Hands and Puberty, and also transcribed as wood-block prints and lithographs. Munch hated to partwith his paintings because he thought of his work as a single body of expression. So to capitalize on his productionand make some income, he turned to graphic arts to reproduce many of his most famous paintings, including those inthis series.[51] Munch admitted to the personal goals of his work but he also offered his art to a wider purpose, “Myart is really a voluntary confession and an attempt to explain to myself my relationship with life—it is, therefore,actually a sort of egoism, but I am constantly hoping that through this I can help others achieve clarity.”[52]

Still attracting strongly negative reactions, in the 1890s Munch did begin to receive some understanding of hisartistic goals, as one critic wrote, “With ruthless contempt for form, clarity, elegance, wholeness, and realism, hepaints with intuitive strength of talent the most subtle visions of the soul.”[53] One of his great supporters in Berlinwas Walter Rathenau, later the German foreign minister, who greatly contributed to his success.

Edvard Munch 6

Paris and Christiania

The Sick Child (1907)

In 1896, Munch moved to Paris, where he focused ongraphic representations of his “Frieze of Life” themes. Hefurther developed his woodcut and lithographictechnique. Munch’s Self-Portrait With Skeleton Arm(1895) is done with an etching needle-and-ink methodalso used by Paul Klee.[54] Munch also producedmulti-colored versions of “The Sick Child” which soldwell, as well as several nudes and multiple versions ofKiss (1892)[54] Many of the Parisian critics stillconsidered Munch’s work “violent and brutal” but hisexhibitions received serious attention and goodattendance.[55] His financial situation improvedconsiderably and in 1897, Munch bought himself asummer house, a small fisherman’s cabin built in the late18th century, in the small town of Åsgårdstrand inNorway. He dubbed this home the "Happy House" andreturned here almost every summer for the next 20years.[56]

Munch returned to Christiania in 1897 where he also received grudging acceptance, where one critic wrote, “A fairnumber of these pictures have been exhibited before. In my opinion these improve on acquaintance.”[56] In 1899, atthe age of thirty-four, Munch began an intimate relationship with Tulla Larsen, a “liberated” upper-class woman.They traveled to Italy together and upon returning, Munch began another fertile period in his art, which includedlandscapes and his final painting in “The Frieze of Life” series, The Dance of Life (1899).[57] She was eager formarriage, and Munch begged off. His drinking and poor health reinforced his fears, as he wrote in the third person,“Ever since he was a child he had hated marriage. His sick and nervous home had given him the feeling that he hadno right to get married.”[58] Munch almost gave in to Tulla, but fled from her in 1900, also turning away from herconsiderable fortune, and moved to Berlin.[58] His Girls on the Jetty, created in eighteen different versions,demonstrated the theme of feminine youth without negative connotations.[51] In 1902, he displayed his worksthematically at the hall of the Berlin Succession, producing “a symphonic effect—it made a great stir—a lot ofantagonism—and a lot of approval.”[59] The Berlin critics were beginning to appreciate Munch’s work even thoughthe public still found his work alien and strange.

The good press coverage gained Munch the attention of influential patrons Albert Kollman and Max Linde. Hedescribed the turn of events in his diary, “After twenty years of struggle and misery forces of good finally come tomy aid in Germany—and a bright door opens up for me.”[60] However, despite this positive change, Munch’sself-destructive and erratic behavior involved him first with a violent quarrel with another artist, then with anaccidental shooting in the presence of Tulla Larsen, who had returned for a brief reconciliation, which injured two ofhis fingers. She finally left him and married a younger colleague of Munch. Munch took this as a betrayal, and hedwelled on the humiliation for some time to come, channeling some of the bitterness into new paintings.[61] Hispaintings Still Life (The Murderess) and The Death of Marat I, done in 1906-7, clearly reference the shootingincident and the emotional after effects.[62]

In 1903-4, Munch exhibited in Paris where the coming Fauvists, famous for their boldly false colors, likely saw his works and might have found inspiration in them. When the Fauves held their own exhibit in 1906, Munch was invited and displayed his works with theirs.[63] After studying the sculpture of Rodin, Munch may have experimented with plasticine as an aid to design, but he produced little sculpture.[64] During this time, Munch

Edvard Munch 7

received many commissions for portraits and prints which improved his usually precarious financial condition.[65]

After an earlier period of landscapes, in 1907 he turned his attention again to human figures and situations.[66]

Breakdown and recoveryHowever, in the autumn of 1908, Munch's anxiety, compounded by excessive drinking and brawling, had becomeacute. As he wrote later, “My condition was verging on madness—it was touch and go.”[67] Subject to hallucinationsand feelings of persecution, he entered the clinic of Dr. Daniel Jacobson. The therapy Munch received for the nexteight months included diet and "electrification" (a treatment then fashionable for nervous conditions, not to beconfused with electroconvulsive therapy).[68] Munch's stay in hospital stabilized his personality, and after returningto Norway in 1909, his work became more colorful and less pessimistic. His portrait of Professor Jacobson, done in1909, is one of Munch’s best.[67] Further brightening his mood, the general public of Christiania finally warmed tohis work, and museums began to purchase his paintings. He was made a Knight of the Royal Order of St. Olav “forservices in art”.[69] His first American exhibit was in 1912 in New York.[70]

As part of his recovery, Dr. Jacobson advised Munch to only socialize with good friends and avoid public drinking.Munch followed this advice and in the process produced several full-length portraits of high quality of friends andpatrons—honest portrayals devoid of flattery.[71] He also created landscapes and scenes of people at work and play,using a new optimistic style—broad, loose brushstrokes of vibrant color with frequent use of white space and rareuse of black—with only occasional references back to his morbid themes. With more income, Munch was able tobuy several properties giving him new vistas for his art and he was finally able to provide for his family.[72]

Munch in 1933.

The outbreak of World War I, found Munch with divided loyalties, ashe stated, “All my friends are German but it is France that I love.”[73] Inthe 1930s, his German patrons, many Jewish, lost their fortunes andsome their lives during the rise of the Nazi movement.[74] Munchfound Norwegian printers to substitute for the Germans who had beenprinting his graphic work.[75] Given his poor health history, during1918 Munch felt himself lucky to have survived a bout of the SpanishFlu, the worldwide pandemic of that year.[76]

Later years

Munch spent most of his last two decades in solitude at his nearlyself-sufficient estate in Ekely, at Skøyen, Oslo.[77] Many of his latepaintings celebrate farm life, including many where he used his workhorse “Rousseau” as a model.[78] Without any effort, Munch had asteady stream of female models, some of which he may have hadsexual relations with, and who were the subjects of numerous nudepaintings.[79] Munch occasionally left his home to paint murals oncommission, including those done for the Freia chocolate factory.[80]

To the end of his life, Munch continued to paint unsparing self-portraits, adding to his self-searching cycle of his lifeand his unflinching series of snapshots of his emotional and physical states. In the 1930s and 1940s, the Nazislabeled Munch's work "degenerate art" (along with Picasso, Paul Klee, Matisse, Gauguin and many other modernartists) and removed his 82 works from German museums.[81] Hitler announced in 1937, “For all we care, thoseprehistoric Stone Age culture barbarians and art-stutterers can return to the caves of their ancestors and there canapply their primitive international scratching.”[82]

In 1940, the Germans invaded Norway and the Nazi party took over the government. Munch was seventy-six years old. With nearly an entire collection of his art in the second floor of his house, Munch lived in fear of a Nazi

Edvard Munch 8

confiscation. Seventy-one of the paintings previously taken by the Nazis had found their way back to Norwaythrough purchase by collectors (the other eleven were never recovered), including The Scream and The Sick Child,and they too were hidden from the Nazis.[83]

Munch died in his house at Ekely near Oslo on January 23, 1944, about a month after his 80th birthday. HisNazi-orchestrated funeral left the impression with Norwegians that he was a Nazi sympathizer.[84] The city of Oslobought the Ekely estate from his heirs in 1946 and demolished his house in May 1960.[85]

Legacy“

From my rotting body,

flowers shall grow

and I am in them

and that is eternity.

”

Edvard Munch [86]

When Munch died, he bequeathed his remaining works to the city of Oslo, which built the Munch Museum at Tøyen(it opened in 1963). The museum hosts a collection of approximately 1,100 paintings, 4,500 drawings, and 18,000prints, the broadest collection of his works in the world.[87] The Munch Museum currently serves at Munch's officialEstate[88] and has been active in responding to copyright infringements, as well as clearing copyright for the work,such as the appearance of Munch's The Scream in a 2006 M&M advertisement campaign.[89] The U.S. copyrightrepresentative for the Munch Museum and the Estate of Edvard Munch is the Artists Rights Society.[90]

Munch’s art was highly personalized and he did little teaching. His “private” symbolism was far more personal thanthat of other Symbolist painters such as Gustave Moreau and James Ensor. Nonetheless, Munch was highlyinfluential, particularly with the German Expressionists, who followed his philosophy, “I do not believe in the artwhich is not the compulsive result of Man’s urge to open his heart.”[41] Many of his paintings, including The Scream,have universal appeal in addition to their highly personal meaning.

Munch on the 1,000 Kroner note.

Munch's works are now represented in numerous major museums andgalleries in Norway and abroad. After the Cultural Revolution in thePeople's Republic of China ended, Munch was the first Western artistto have his pictures exhibited at the National Gallery in Beijing. Hiscabin “the Happy House” was given to the municipality ofÅsgårdstrand in 1944 and is now a small Munch museum. Theinventory is still exactly as he left it.

One version of The Scream was stolen from the National Gallery in1994. In 2004 another version of The Scream along with one of Madonna were stolen from the Munch Museum in adaring daylight robbery. All were eventually recovered, but the paintings stolen in the 2004 robbery were extensivelydamaged. They have been meticulously restored and are on display again. Three Munch works were stolen from theHotel Refsnes Gods in 2005; they were shortly recovered, although one of the works was damaged during therobbery.[91]

In October 2006, the color woodcut Two people. The lonely (To mennesker. De ensomme) set a new record for hisprints when it was sold at an auction in Oslo for 8.1 million NOK (1.27 million USD). It also set a record for thehighest price paid in auction in Norway.[92] On November 3, 2008, the painting Vampire set a new record for hispaintings when it was sold for 38.162 million USD at Sotheby's New York.Munch appears on the Norwegian 1,000 Kroner note along with pictures inspired by his artwork.[93]

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List of major works• 1892 — Evening on Karl Johan• 1893 — The Scream• 1894 — Ashes• 1894–1895 — Madonna• 1895 — Puberty• 1895 — Self-Portrait with Burning Cigarette• 1895 — Death in the Sickroom• 1899–1900 — The Dance of Life• 1899–1900 — The Dead Mother• 1940–1942 — Self Portrait: Between Clock and Bed

Gallery

The Scream.1893. Oil,

tempera, andpastel on

cardboard.Nasjonalgalleriet,

Oslo.

Death in the Sickroom.c. 1895. Oil on canvas.

59 × 66 in.Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo.

The Dance of Life. 1899–1900.Oil on canvas, 49½ × 75 in.

Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo.

Madonna.1894–95. Oil oncanvas. 36 × 28

in.Nasjonalgalleriet,

Oslo.

Vampire. 1893-94. Oilon canvas.

Nasjonalgalleriet,Oslo.

Lady From the Sea (detail). 1896.Oil on canvas. 39½ × 126 in.

Ashes. 1894. Oil oncanvas. 120.5 × 141

cm.Nasjonalgalleriet,

Oslo.

The Sick Child(1885-87). Tate

Gallery, London.

Edvard Munch 10

Death of Marat I (1907) August Strindberg.1892. Oil on

canvas, 120 × 90cm. Museum of

Modern Art,Stockholm,

Sweden

Notes[1] (http:/ / www. munch. museum. no/ content. aspx?id=13) Biography from Munch Museum[2] Eggum 1984, p. 15[3] Eggum 1984, p. 16[4] Prideaux, Sue (2005), Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream, New Haven: Yale University Press, p. 17, ISBN 0300110243[5] Prideaux 2005, p. 2[6] Prideaux 2005, p. 19[7] Eggum 1984, p. 137[8] Eggum 1984, p. 22[9] Prideaux 2005, pp. 22–3[10] Prideaux 2005, p. 35[11] Prideaux 2005, p. 40[12] Prideaux 2005, p. 41[13] Eggum 1984, p. 34[14] Prideaux 2005, p. 34[15] Eggum 1984, p. 41[16] Eggum 1984, p. 43[17] Prideaux 2005, p. 71, 74[18] Prideaux 2005, p. 71[19] Prideaux 2005, p. 72[20] Prideaux 2005, p. 83[21] Prideaux 2005, p. 88[22] Eggum 1984, pp. 52–3[23] Eggum 1984, p. 46[24] Eggum 1984, p. 59[25] Eggum 1984, p. 55[26] Prideaux 2005, p. 49[27] Eggum 1984, p. 108[28] Prideaux 2005, p. 110[29] Eggum 1984, p. 61[30] Eggum 1984, p. 9[31] Eggum 1984, p. 12[32] Prideaux 2005, p. 114[33] Prideaux 2005, p. 115[34] Eggum 1984, pp. 64–68[35] Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream (http:/ / books. google. co. uk/ books?id=uJzfs0cq71gC& pg=RA1-PA135& dq=Adelsteen+ normann&

as_brr=3& cd=1#v=onepage& q=Adelsteen normann& f=false), Sue Prideaux p.135-7, 2007, ISBN 978-0-300-12401-9, accessed April 2010[36] Prideaux 2005, p. 136[37] Eggum 1984, p. 91[38] Eggum 1984, p. 77[39] Prideaux 2005, p. 153

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[40] Eggum 1984, p. 79[41] Eggum 1984, p. 10[42] Faerna, 1995 p. 16[43] Faerna, 1995, p. 17[44] Prideaux 2005, p. 152[45] Margaret F. MacDonald, ed., Whistler’s Mother: An American Icon, Lund Humphries, Burlington, Vt., 2003, p.80, ISBN 0-85331-856-5[46] Faerna, 1995, p. 28[47] Prideaux 2005, p. 211[48] Eggum 1984, pp. 116–8[49] Eggum 1984, p. 122[50] Faerna 1995, p. 6[51] Faerna 1995, p. 5[52] Eggum 1984, p. 118[53] Eggum 1984, p. 121[54] Eggum 1984, p. 141[55] Eggum 1984, p. 152[56] Eggum 1984, p. 153[57] Eggum 1984, p. 168[58] Eggum 1984, p. 174[59] Eggum 1984, p. 176[60] Eggum 1984, p. 181[61] Eggum 1984, p. 183[62] Eggum 1984, p. 214[63] Eggum 1984, p. 190[64] Eggum 1984, p. 195[65] Eggum 1984, p. 196, 203[66] Eggum 1984, p. 228[67] Eggum 1984, p. 236[68] Eggum 1984, pp. 235–6[69] Eggum 1984, p. 239[70] Prideaux 2005, p. 373[71] Eggum 1984, p. 240[72] Eggum 1984, p. 259[73] Prideaux 2005, p. 285[74] Prideaux 2005, p. 288[75] Prideaux 2005, p. 290[76] Prideaux 2005, p. 299[77] Prideaux 2005, p. 291[78] Prideaux 2005, p. 292[79] Prideaux 2005, p. 297[80] Prideaux 2005, p. 374[81] Eggum 1984, p. 287[82] Prideaux 2005, p. 313[83] Prideaux 2005, p. 319[84] Prideaux 2005, p. 328[85] Altern, Arne: Tanker omkring et nedrevet hus. In: St. Hallvard 1961, pp. 5–19.[86] Sustainable Landscape Construction : A Guide to Green Building Outdoors (2007) by William Thompson and Kim Sorvig, p. 30[87] "Munch Museum: The Museum and the collection" (http:/ / www. munch. museum. no/ content. aspx?id=2& mid=& lang=en). . Retrieved

2007-12-25.[88] Munch Museum: About the Museum (http:/ / www. munch. museum. no/ content. aspx?id=2& mid=2)[89] Masterfoods USA Press Release: "M&M'S(R) Responds to Consumer Demand and Introduces the Fun Way to Eat Dark Chocolate" (http:/ /

www. prnewswire. com/ cgi-bin/ stories. pl?ACCT=104& STORY=/ www/ story/ 08-21-2006/ 0004419473& EDATE=)[90] Most frequently requested artists list of the Artists Rights Society (http:/ / arsny. com/ requested. html)[91] Gibbs, Walter (2005-03-10). "Arts, Briefly; Munch Theft Confessions" (http:/ / query. nytimes. com/ gst/ fullpage.

html?res=9D03EFD7163CF933A25750C0A9639C8B63& partner=rssnyt& emc=rss). New York Times. . Retrieved 2010-03-04.[92] "Noen høyere?" (http:/ / www. aftenposten. no/ kul_und/ article1581669. ece). Aftenposten. 2006-12-27. . Retrieved 2007-12-25.[93] "1000-krone note" (http:/ / www. norges-bank. no/ Pages/ Article____12364. aspx). . Retrieved 2007-12-25.

Edvard Munch 12

Further reading• Peter Black and Magne Bruteig, Edvard Munch: Prints. Catalogue of exhibition at Hunterian, Glasgow and

National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin 2009. (Philip Wilson, London 2009)• Sue Prideaux, Behind The Scream (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005) Winner of the James Tait Black

Memorial Prize for Biography, 2006• Reinhold Heller, Munch. His life and work (London: Murray, 1984).• Gustav Schiefler, Verzeichnis des graphischen Werks Edvard Munchs bis 1906 (Berlin: Bruno Cassirer, 1907).• Gustav Schiefler, Edvard Munch. Das graphische Werk 1906–1926 (Berlin: Euphorion, 1928).• J. Gill Holland The Private Journals of Edvard Munch: We Are Flames Which Pour out of the Earth (University

of Wisconsin Press 2005)• Edward Dolnick The Rescue Artist: A True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece

(HarperCollins, 2005) (Recounts the 1994 theft of The Scream from Norway's National Gallery in Oslo, and itseventual recovery.)

• Gerd Woll, Edvard Munch: Complete Paintings, 2009.(4 Volume catalogue raisonné slipcased: Volume I:1880-1897, Volume II: 1898-1908, Volume III: 1909-1920, Volume IV: 1921-1944). ISBN 978-82-04-14000-5,ISBN 0-500-09345-8.[1]

References[1] Catalogue_raisonné published in Norwegian by Cappelen Damm (http:/ / www. cappelendamm. no/ main/ Katalog. aspx?f=10120&

isbn=9788204140005) and in English by Thames and Hudson (http:/ / www. thamesandhudson. com/ en/ 1/ 9780500093450.mxs?ec843e6ff0dfbde1d21be7e670754010& 0& 0& 0)

• Chipp, H.B.. Theories of Modern Art: A Source Book by Artists and Critics. University of California Press.p. 114. ISBN 0-520-05256-0.

• Eggum, A.; Munch, E. (1984). Edvard Munch: paintings, sketches, and studies. New York: C.N. Potter.ISBN 0-517-55617-0.

• Faerna, José María (1995). Munch. New York: Harry N. Abrams. p. 16. ISBN 0-8109-4694-7.

External links• Edvard Munch (http:/ / www. moma. org/ collection/ artist. php?artist_id=4164) at the Museum of Modern Art• Edvard Munch (http:/ / www. edvardmunch. info/ )• The Dance of Life Site (http:/ / www. edvard-munch. com/ index1. htm)• Edvard Munch Catalogue Raisonné (http:/ / www. munch-raisonne. com/ )• Collection of Edvard Munch's works (http:/ / ytayta. com/ artists/ munch_edvard)• Munch at Olga's Gallery (http:/ / abcgallery. com/ M/ munch/ munch. html) — large online collection of Munch's

works (over 200 paintings)• Munch at artcyclopedia (http:/ / www. artcyclopedia. com/ artists/ munch_edvard. html)• Edvard Munch at WikiGallery.org (http:/ / www. wikigallery. org/ wiki/ artist36535/ Edvard-Munch/ page-1)• Rothenberg A (2001). "Bipolar illness, creativity, and treatment" (http:/ / www. kluweronline. com/ art.

pdf?issn=0033-2720& volume=72& page=131). Psychiatr Q 72 (2): 131–47. doi:10.1023/A:1010367525951.PMID 11433879.

• Fineman, Mia (Nov. 22, 2005). "Existential Superstar" (http:/ / www. slate. com/ id/ 2130897/ ). Slate (magazine).

Article Sources and Contributors 13

Article Sources and ContributorsEdvard Munch  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=431617150  Contributors: .:Ajvol:., 3idiot, 5jotas, A-giau, A3RO, ABF, AOEU, Abdullais4u, Acather96, Addshore, Aecis,AeonicOmega, Agamemnon2, Aglomax, Ahoerstemeier, Aikclaes, Aitias, Alansohn, Alsandro, Amirzk, Amog, Andreas007, Andrew c, Angela26, Anna Lincoln, Antandrus, ArglebargleIV, Artmasterpiece, Asav, Asparagus, Astarte, AtheWeatherman, Avenged Eightfold, BD2412, BZero, BabyTikal, Bart133, Bender235, Bensaccount, Bigturtle, Bill Thayer, Bkwillwm, BlueAg09,Bobo192, Bombombdog, Bonadea, Bongwarrior, Bookandcoffee, Brandon97, Bucephalus, Bus stop, Bwilkins, C1self, Calabraxthis, Callipides, Capricorn42, Cbernasc, Ccacsmss, Celithemis,ChicXulub, Chowbok, Cj1010, Cliff smith, Cntras, Cometstyles, CommonsDelinker, Conrad.Irwin, Conversion script, Coredesat, Crazysteps, Crywalt, Curious bystander, Cyberman, Cyde, CyrusAndiron, D6, DARTH SIDIOUS 2, DVD R W, Da Vynci, DanielCD, Danlina, Danny, Danski14, Darklilac, Dash, Davidruben, Dawashingmachine, DeadEyeArrow, Decltype, Delldot, Denfjättrade ankan, Denisutku, Deor, DerHexer, Devanatha, Dexter prog, Discospinster, Doczilla, Dora dora, DoubleBlue, Doulos Christos, Download, Dr. Dan, Dyss, E23, EEMIV, EarthPerson,Edderso, Edvard Munchkin, EdvardMunch, Egil, Eisfbnore, Eleassar, Elendil's Heir, Ellywa, Emurphy42, Enviroboy, Epbr123, Erkan Yilmaz, Espen, EssJJ2006, Etacar11, EvaK, Eve Hall,EvenT, Everyking, Ewulp, Exteray, Face-2-face, Favonian, Ffirehorse, Flamablebug, Flemishpainter, Follywollycompy, Francis Schonken, Gadfium, Gail, Ged UK, Geschichte, Get It,Gilberto8242, Glane23, Gnusmas, Goatasaur, Godcast, Graham87, GreatInDayton, Gregbard, Grenavitar, Grillo, Gromlakh, Gsmgm, Gtaillet, Guoguo12, HalfShadow, Hawreck, HenkvD,Hiddekel, Hmains, Hobartimus, Hrfiodilk59099, Hut 6.5, Hyad, IGeMiNix, IammeIam801, Ian Pitchford, Icemuon, IncognitoErgoSum, Inge, Ionescuac, Iridescent, Irishguy, IvanLanin, JMilburn, J.delanoy, JNW, JRSP, Jaibe, Jake Wartenberg, Jamiemcginlay, Jan eissfeldt, Jauhienij, Jay-Sebastos, Jfire, Jfpierce, Jhendin, Jim10701, Jimmy Pitt, Jmaldonado, Jncraton, John Lake,John Vandenberg, John of Reading, Johnleemk, Joyous!, Jsc83, Jusjih, Kaare, Kalahanne, Karada, Karl Stas, Kbh3rd, Keilana, Kenicks, Kenwarren, Killiondude, Kilmer-san, Kingturtle,Kjoonlee, Kmaciver, Koavf, Kostisl, Kresspahl, Kukini, Kwamikagami, Lambiam, Larry Sanger, Laryngoskop, Laura H S, Lawliet1111, LeaveSleaves, Leifern, Lexor, LightCMM, Lights,LinDrug, Little Mountain 5, Logical2u, Luna Santin, Lupo, Luuunna, MK8, Magioladitis, Magister Mathematicae, Magnus, Mandarax, Manuel Trujillo Berges, Manxruler, Martin451, Marv1N,Matve, Maurice Carbonaro, Mav, Maxi2025, Meco, Mediocrity, Merlion444, Mets501, Mic, Midnightdreary, Mighty poo, Migozared, Mihalyia, Milesli, Modernist, Moncrief, Mortene,MrStalker, Munchpronunciation, Murgh, Nappyrootslistener, Narutolovehinata5, NerdyScienceDude, Nessa23, Neverquick, Nick C, Nightenbelle, Njaard, Noosentaal, Novickas, Nsaa, Ntse,Nunya1121, Obli, Ocaasi, Oedipalwreck, Olivier, Ortolan88, Oxymoron83, Ozolina, Pan BMP, Parkjunwung, Pb30, Persian Poet Gal, Peruvianllama, Peter Isotalo, Pewwer42, Pgk, Phaeton23,Pharaoh of the Wizards, Philip Cross, Philip Trueman, Physicistjedi, Piano non troppo, Pichote, PigFlu Oink, Pirfle, Pishaww, Poeloq, Polisher of Cobwebs, Ponyo, PoopooXD, Qxz, R, R. fiend,RDBrown, Rajah, Rasmus Faber, Raul654, Raven in Orbit, Rdsmith4, Real singh shady, Reece Llwyd, Res2216firestar, RexNL, Rjwilmsi, Rodhullandemu, Roede, Roleplayer, Rrburke, S.forlag,Samuelsen, Scientizzle, ScottyBerg, Scotwriter, Sctechlaw, Sebesta, Sebisthlm, Serasuna, Shadowjams, Shandilya a, Shanes, ShelfSkewed, Shiftingsail, Shirulashem, Simone, Sintonak.X, Skater,SkyBoxx, Sluzzelin, Smallman12q, SmartGuy, Snowolf, Solipsist, Someguy1221, Spanglej, Sparkit, Sphizzle, Spinster, Spitfire, SpuriousQ, StephenBuxton, Stepshep, Steven Zhang,StradivariusTV, Studerby, Stumps, THEN WHO WAS PHONE?, Tamas44carry, Tetraedycal, The Anome, TheSeez, Thingg, Thomazfranzese, Thorml, Thumperward, Tiddly Tom, Tide rolls,Timeineurope, Tommy2010, Tony1, Tpbradbury, TravisAF, Truthiness Guy, Ttwaring, Tullie, Tyrenius, Ucanlookitup, Uncle Dick, Utcursch, Vexillatio, Vicenarian, Victor falk, Victuallers,Vookap, Vriullop, Wayward, Where, Wiki alf, WikiSlasher, Wikiboywonder, Wikiklrsc, Will2k, Wimt, Wizardman, Wmpearl, Woohookitty, Wool of the Sheep, Xnuala, Xp54321, Zidane tribal,ZooFari, Иван Москалев, Саша Стефановић, 1026 anonymous edits

Image Sources, Licenses and ContributorsFile:Edvard Munch 1921.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Edvard_Munch_1921.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Hekerui, ManxrulerFile:Self Portrait with Skeleton Arm.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Self_Portrait_with_Skeleton_Arm.jpg  License: unknown  Contributors: Edvard MunchFile:The Scream.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:The_Scream.jpg  License: unknown  Contributors: Edvard MunchFile:TheSickChild-by-EdvardMunch-FourthVersion.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:TheSickChild-by-EdvardMunch-FourthVersion.jpg  License: unknown Contributors: Edvard MunchFile:Edvard Munch 1933-2.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Edvard_Munch_1933-2.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: ManxrulerFile:VII-1000-forside-200.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:VII-1000-forside-200.jpg  License: unknown  Contributors: NsengstadFile:Munch deathSickroom.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Munch_deathSickroom.jpg  License: unknown  Contributors: Abeg92, Marv1N, Mechamind90, Sparkit,Strangerer, Valentinian, 1 anonymous editsFile:Munch DanceOfLife.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Munch_DanceOfLife.jpg  License: unknown  Contributors: Marv1N, Mechamind90, Sparkit, Strangerer,ValentinianFile:Edvard Munch - Madonna (1894-1895).jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Edvard_Munch_-_Madonna_(1894-1895).jpg  License: unknown  Contributors: B,Gildos, Infrogmation, Jacobolus, Jnc, Lokal Profil, MarkSweep, Marv1N, Mechamind90, Pearle, Rjwilmsi, Seresin, Sparkit, Thebrid, Tyrenius, 1 anonymous editsFile:Munch vampire.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Munch_vampire.jpg  License: unknown  Contributors: Jfire, Marv1N, Mechamind90, Nv8200p, Sparkit,Strangerer, White Cat, 1 anonymous editsFile:Edvard Munch, Lady from the sea.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Edvard_Munch,_Lady_from_the_sea.jpg  License: unknown  Contributors: Edvard MunchFile:Munch_Ashes.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Munch_Ashes.jpg  License: unknown  Contributors: Marv1N, Mechamind90, Sparkit, StrangererFile:Munch death of marat I 1907.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Munch_death_of_marat_I_1907.jpg  License: unknown  Contributors: Edvard MunchFile:August Stindberg.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:August_Stindberg.jpg  License: unknown  Contributors: Edvard Munch

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