Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
in the capital. Opened in 1994, it's named for Rolf E. Stenersen, the interna-
tional art collector. The nucleus of the collection focuses on Stenersen's person-
ally acquired art, including paintings by Edvard Munch. Its permanent
The Man Behind The Scream
Scandinavia's greatest artist, Edvard Munch (1863-1944), was a pio-
neer in the expressionist movement.
The Scream,
painted in 1893, is his
best-known painting. There are four known versions of this painting,
one of which was stolen from the Munch Museum in August of 2004
(p. 123). He grew up in Oslo (then called Christiania) and was often ill.
Early memories of illness, death, and grief in his family had a tremen-
dous impact on his later works. His father's death may have con-
tributed to the loneliness and melancholy of one of his most famous
works,
Night
(1890).
By the early 1890s, Munch had achieved fame (though slight in com-
parison with his renown today). He was at the center of a
succés de
scandale
in Munich in 1892 when his art was interpreted as “anarchis-
tic provocation.” A major exhibit was closed in protest.
Munch went to Berlin to escape, entering a world of literati, artists,
and intellectuals. He met August Strindberg and they discussed the
philosophy of Nietzsche, symbolism, psychology, and occultism. The
discussions clearly influenced his work. His growing outlook was
revealed to the world in an 1893 show in Berlin, where several paint-
ings had death as their theme. His
Death in a Sickroom
particularly
created quite a stir.
In 1896 Munch moved to Paris, where he made exquisite color lith-
ographs and his first woodcuts. By the turn of the 20th century, he was
painting in a larger format and incorporating some of the Art Nou-
veau aesthetics of the time.
Red Virginia Creeper and Melancholy
reflects the new influences. Prominent people also asked Munch to
paint their portraits, and he obliged. His 1904 group portrait of Dr.
Linde's sons is a masterpiece of modern portraiture.
A nervous disorder soon sent him to a sanitarium, and he had a tur-
bulent love affair with a wealthy bohemian nicknamed “Tulla.” The
affair ended in 1902 when a revolver permanently injured a finger on
Munch's left hand. He became obsessed with the shooting incident,
and poured out his contempt for Tulla in such works as
Death of Murat
(1907). Munch also became increasingly alcoholic, and in 1906 he
painted
Self-Portrait with a Bottle of Wine.
From 1909 until his death, Munch lived in Norway. In his later years
he retreated into isolation, surrounded only by his paintings, which he
called “my children.” The older Munch placed more emphasis on the
monumental and the picturesque, as in landscapes or people in har-
mony with nature.
In 1940 he decided to leave his huge collection of paintings to the
city of Oslo upon his death. Today the Edvard Munch Museum provides
the best introduction to this strange and enigmatic artist.
