Werner Timm - Edvard Munch - 1982

the Great Hall of Oslo University with large oil paintings-a com­ mission which he won against considerable opposition. His views of life had by then become more mature, more collected :"The 'Frieze of Life' represents the joys and sufferings of individual men and women seen from quite close. The pictures for the University show the great eternal forces." On one of the walls an old man sitting under a tree represents the oral transmission of history-an impres­ sive image. Equally impressive is the Alma Mater, a mother with her children, on the opposite wall . For the dominating frontal wall Munch originally designed a composition, inspired by Nietz­ sche, which was to have the title : "Upwards to the Light" but even­ tually he developed from this a picture of the rising sun whose scintillating rays, like innumerable arms, stretch out over the Nor­ wegian landscape, a truly fascinating, life-affirming image of tre­ mendous power.-In 1 9 2 2 a commission to paint twelve wall panels for the joint dining room of workers and staff at the Freia chocolate factory, presented Munch with another great task. Yet another, the decoration with paintings of Oslo Town Hall, unfortunately never progressed beyond the design stage. One of the d raft compositions designed for an arched section was to show the workers who built the town hall. It was partly based on the group of labourers clearing a road from snow which is illustrated in this book .

In addition to these monumental works Munch, constantly driven by a creative urge that gave him no rest, painted picture after picture, but with no intention of selling any of them (indeed he had always found it hard to part with his works and had kept most of them) . Moreover he ceaselessly worked over his old paintings and created new versions. No solution was ever final for him. Not unexpectedly the change that took place in his art after 1 908 is most noticeable in his new pictures : harmonious quiet landscapes , splendidly colour­ ful nudes, men at work. Pictures full of nameless fear (Angst) give way to more positive moods. The accent on the mysterious and the symbolic which is so prominent in many of his earlier works grad-

Moonrise. 2 5. 5 x 48 cm. Chalk. 1 908 . Oslo, Munch Museum

ually recedes into the background . More and more it is colour that informs the structure of his pictures and decides their mood . The harmony of his colour relations and the luminous quality of his paint found their highest expressions in these late canvasses, bearing wit­ ness to his superb maturity as a painter. Admittedly this develop­ ment was not without transitions nor without returns to the harsher treatment of colour characteristic for his earlier period . However the last version of "The Sick Child" participates to a high degree in this mature and sovereign handling of colour.

It is not surprising that during this period in which painterly values dominated his work his interest in the graphic media tended to sub­ side. His graphic work ends around 1 9 0 with some magnificent woodcuts. Much of what Munch painted in the last decades of his life is little known to a wider public. A comprehensive monograph of his reuvre has yet to be written. But what is known from exhibi­ tions and reproductions shows clearly that to the very end of his life Munch remained true to what he conceived to be his allotted task described by himself as "being called upon to find visual expression for the human condition of my time."

1 1

The Artist and his Time

1863 Birth of Edvard Munch on 1zth December in the farmhouse Engelhaugen in Loten (South Norway),the son of Dr. Christian Munch, physician, and his wife Laura, nee Bjolstad.

Years of birth of important contemporaries-1853: Vincent van Gogh, Ferdinand Hadler; 1862: Gerhart Hauptmann, Gustav Klimt; 1863: Henry van de Velde, Franz von Stuck, Richard Dehmel; 1864: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Frank Wedekind; 1866: Dostojevsky, Sigbjorn Obst/elder; 1867: Kiithe Kollwitz, Emil Nolde.

1864 Dr. Munch moves to Christiania (Oslo).

1865 Manet's "Olympia," exhibited in the Paris "Salon," cawes a scandal.

1867 Karl Marx publishes the first volume of "Das Kapital."

1868 Munch's mother dies aged thirty-three years. Karen Bjolstad, her sister, looks after the children. She is the first to recognize the child's artistic leanings.

1869 Birth of the Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland.

1874 First Impressionist exhibition in Paris.

1875-1890 The period of "problem literature" in Norway.

1877 Munch's sister Sophie dies like her mother from consumption, aged fifteen years.

1879 Munch starts studying at the High School of Technology, but gives it up in 1880 in order to become a painter.

Henrik Ibsen's "Nora or a Doll's House" is published (1867: "Peer Gynt," 1881: "Ghosts," 1899: "When the Dead awaken").

18So ]. P. Jacobsen's novel "Niels Lyhne" is published. Munch admires it greatly.

Max Klinger publishes his sequence "Eva und die Zukunft" (Eve and the Future) which he dedicates to Christian Krohg (1883: "Dra­ men"-Dramas; 1884: "Ein Leben"-A Life; 1889; "Vom Tode!"­ On Death!).

1881-1884 Munch studies with the sculptor Julius Middelthun, with Christian Krohg, an important member of the local Realist school, and with Fritz Thaulow in the latter's "Plein-Air Academy" at Modum.

1883 Munch exhibits for the first time.

August Bebel's basic work: "Die Frau und der Sozialismus" (Woman and Socialism) is issued in its first public edition.

Nietzsche: "Also sprach Zarathustra" (Thus spoke Zarathustra). Hans jiiger's novel "Fra Kristiania-Bohemen" is banned because of its progressive and anarchist ideas.

1884 Munch joins the Christiania Boheme, a group led by Hans Jager.

1885 Munch obtains a scholarship which enables him to spend three weeks in Paris. He starts "The Sick Child," "The Morning after," and "Puberty" which he completes the following year.

1886 Moreas publishes the manifesto of Symbolism.

1887 Gauguin goes to Martinique, and in 1891 to Tahiti. Christian Krohg's short story "Albertine" is banned. Foundation of theNorwegian Labour Party (a member of the Third International from 1919-1921).

1888 The group of the Nabis is formed in Paris.

1889 First major one-man show with 11o paintings in Christiania. A state scholarship enables Munch to go to Paris for a second time; from October 1889 to January 1890 he frequents the studio of Leon Bonnat. Impressed by the Impressionists. Sees works by VanGogh and G;111guin. Munch's father dies.

The performance of Ibsen's "Ghosts" in Berlin causes great indigna­ tion.

The Paris World Exhibition. Erection of the Eiflel Tower. Its steel construction makes a great impression on Munch.

1890 Hadler paints: "Night," rejects Naturalism and lays the founda­ tion of Monumental Art.

Hamsun publishes his nqvel: "Hunger" (1892: "Mysteries" and 1894: "Pan").

1890-1892 Munch travels to Paris and Nice.

1891 Ibsen returns permanently to Christiania after thirty years absence; he dies there in 1906.

Arne Garborg: "Tired Souls;" FrankWedekind: "Spring'sAwakening." Van Gogh Memorial Exhibition in Paris.

1892 The Society of Berlin Artists invites Munch who exhibits twenty­ five paintings in the house of the Architects' Society in Wilhelmstrasse. The exhibition which opened on 5th November causes a great uproar. An extraordinary General Meeting of the Society of Berlin Artists decides by a small majority to close the exhibition on 12th November. Munch settles temporarily in Berlin. He meets a group of progressive poets and writers such as Strindberg, Richard Dehmel, Julius Meyer­ Graefe, Stanislaw Przybyszewski and others at the tavern "Das schwarze Ferkel" (the Black Piglet)-the name having been bestowed

12

on the place by Strindberg. He paints numerous pictures for the "Frieze of Life."

1893 Gerhart Hauptmann's "Weber" (The Weavers) are banned after their First Night in Berlin (1894: "Hanneles Himmelfahrt"-Hannele goes to Heaven). Hans ]ager publishes his novel: "Sick Love."

Herman Bang's "Generations without Hope" (a "Blue Book" of Den­ mark's "Decadents") is published.

1894 Munchproduces his first works in the graphic media.

1895 Sigmund Freud publishes his "Studien uber Hysterie" (Studies on Hysteria); (1900: "Die Traumdeutung"-The Interpretation of Dreams).

1896/1897 Munch back in Paris; contact with Symbolists; he makes a lithograph portrait of Mallarme. He exhibits paintings in the "Maison de l'art nouveau;" Strindberg writes a long review in the "Revue Blanche." Munch exhibits his "Frieze of Life" at the "Salon des lnde­ pendants."

1897 Stanislaw Przybyszewski publishes a volume of short stories "Au/ den Wegen der Seele" (The Pathways of the Soul) (1902: "Toten­ tanz der Liebe"-Love's Danse Macabre).

Gustav Klimt founds the Wiener Sezession. Munch takes part in one of their exhibitions in 1904.

1898-1901 Munch travels in Germany, France, Italy and Switzerland.

1899 The National Gallery in Oslo acquires Munch's "Spring" for 2,500 Norwegian crowns.

1902-1908 Munch stays in Berlin, Hamburg, Warnemiinde and Wei­ mar. Albert Kollmann arranges for Munch to spend two months in Lubeck with the physician Dr. Linde in order to paint there. He meets the collector Gustav Schieffer.

1903 Bjornsterne Bjornson receives the Nobel-Prize.

1903/1904 Munch paints the "Linde-Frieze" and becomes a member of theSecession. Morosow, a Russiancollector, buys the painting "Girls on a Bridge."

1905 The Norwegian Parliament (The Storting} severs the country's union with Sweden. This move, confirmed by a referendum, makes Narway completely independent. Foundation of the "Kunstlergemein­ schaft Briicke" in Dresden and of the group of "Les Fauves" in Paris.

1906 Max Reinhardt commissions Munch to design the sets to a pro­ duction of Ibsen's "Ghosts" in the Berlin theatre Kammerspiele. He paints the so-called "Reinhardt-Frieze."

1907/1908 Munch spends the summer at Warnemiinde.

1908 Severe nervous breakdown. Prolonged stay in Dr. Daniel Jacob­ sen's nursing home at Skodsborg near Copenhagen.

1909 Munch returns to Norway for good.

1910 Lives at Kragero and Hvitsten.

First draft designs for the paintings in the Great Hall of Oslo Univer­ sity. In the following years, repeated short trips abroad, usually in con­ nection with exhibitions.

Hodler paints "Wood-cutters" (1909: "Mowers")-new "Monumental" style of representing workers.

1912 August Strindberg dies.

1913 Women get the vote in Norway.

1914-1918 First World War.

1916 Munchacquires Ekely in Skoyen for his permanent residence. He builds open-air studios.

1917 Socialist October Revolution in Russia.

1920 Knut Hamsun receives the Nobel Prize (1917: "The Fruits of the Soil").

1922 Walther Rathenau is assassinated.

Munch makes a lithograph of one of the big protest demonstrations at Frankfurt.

1923 Foundation of the Communist Party of Norway.

1924 Christiania changes its name to Oslo.

1927 Big Munch exhibition at the Kronprinzenpalais, Berlin.

1930/1931 Severe eye complaint which threatens the loss of his eye­ sight.

1937 Eighty-two works of Munch's in German public galleries are confiscated by the Nazis together with other examples of "Depraved Art."

Picasso paints "Guernica."

Exhibition of "Depraved Art" in Munich.

1939 The second World War begins. On 9th April, 1940 German troups occupy Norway.

1941-1945 Strong resistance movement and home guard activities in Norway.

1944 On 23rd January Munch dies at Ekely. In his will he leaves 1,008 paintings, q,391 prints and 4,443 drawings to the City of Oslo.

13

Selection of Works	All I have to give
	are my pictures-
	without them, I am nothing.
	Edvard Munch

It is not possible to list more than a brief selection of the total c:euvre which probably contains something like 1,400 works. No critical cata­ logue of his c:euvre has so far been compiled. Munch was himself the chief collector of his works which he never liked to part with. He rarely considered a work to be completed, and we know that he made new versions and altered existing ones continually over many decades. Incidentally this is the reason, why it is often very difficult to date a given canvas. Munch generously bequeathed his artistic estate, includ­ ing 1,008 paintings to the City of Oslo.Thus Oslo's galleries possess the richest collection of his pictures in the world. It is chiefly housed in the Munch Museum founded in 1963 on the occasion of the centenary of the artist's birth. In addition there are several important collections in private hands, especially in Norway, and nearly all leading museums in Europe contain works by him, though the notorious Nazi action against what they called "Depraved Art" has caused some painful gaps in some German museums which had started buying important works of his at an early date.

Self-Portrait. Ca. 1881/I882. 25x18 cm. Oslo, Munch Museum Interieur. Pilestredet. 1881. 21x27 cm. Oslo, Munch Museum

The Family seated around the Lamp. 1883/1884. 47x79 cm. Oslo Munch Museum

Karen Bji:ilstad (The artist's aunt) in a rocking chair. 1884. 47x41 cm. Oslo, Collection Dr. H. Fett

Morning (Young girl sitting on the bed). 1884. 93x100 cm. Bergen, Collection Rasmus Meyer

The painter Jensen-Hjell. 1885. 19ox100 cm. Oslo, CollectionThomas

Olsen
The Sick	Child. 1885/1886. 119.5x118.5 cm. Oslo, National Gallery
Eventide	(Munch's	sister Laura in	the	foreground	left).	1888.
75x 100.5 cm. Collection Th. Johnson jr.
Sister Inger on the sea shore (Summer evening). 1889.					126x162 cm.
Bergen, Collection Rasmus Meyer
Military	Band in	Karl-Johan Gade.	1889.	102x141.5 cm.		Zurich,

Kunsthaus

The painter Di:irnberger. 1889. 133.5x91.5 cm. Leipzig, Museum der bildenden Kiinste

Portrait of Hans Jager. 1889. 108x83 cm. Oslo, National Gallery Night. 1890. 64.5x54 cm. Oslo, National Gallery

Rue Lafayette. 1891. 92x 73 cm. Oslo, National Gallery

Spring on Karl-Johan Gade. 1891. 81x100 cm. Bergen, Collection Rasmus Meyer

Sister Inger. 1892. 172x121 cm. Oslo, National Gallery Boys bathing. Ca. 1892. 92x150 cm. Oslo, National Gallery

The Kiss. 1892. 72.3x90.7 cm. Oslo, Collection Christian Mustad Vampire. 1893. 8ox1oocm. Gi:iteborg, Museum of Art

Death and the Maiden. 1893. 128x86 cm. Oslo, Munch Museum Moonlight. 1893. 140.5x135 cm. Oslo, National Gallery

The Storm. 1893. 98x127 cm. Oslo, Collection Christian Mustad The Voice. 1893. 88x100 cm. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts The Scream. 1893. 84x67 cm. Oslo, Munch Museum

Dagny Juell. 1893. 151x101 cm. Oslo, Munch Museum Madonna. 1894. 91x70 cm. Oslo, National Gallery Ashes. 1894. 120x141 cm. Oslo, National Gallery

Starlit Night in Asgardstrand. 1894. 138x130 cm. Oslo, Collection Johan H. Andresen

Melancholy (The Yellow Boat-Jealousy). 1894. 81x100.5 cm. Bergen, Collection Rasmus Meyer

A Feeling of nameless Fear. 1894. 93x73 cm. Oslo, Munch Museum The Split. 1894. 67x128 cm. Oslo, Munch Museum

Self-Portrait. In Hell. Ca. 1895. 82x6o cm. Oslo, Munch Museum The Death-Chamber. 1894/1895. 15ox167 cm. Oslo, National Gallery Moonlit Night. 1895. 95x110 cm. Oslo, Collection Christian Mustad Portrait of August Strindberg. 1895. 120x90 cm. Stockholm, Moderna Museet

The painter Paul Hermann and Paul Gontard. 1897. 53x72 cm. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum

Mother and Daughter. 1897. 135x163 cm. Oslo, National Gallery Jealousy. 1897. 67xIOO cm. Bergen, Collection Rasmus Meyer The Kiss. 1897. 99xSo.5 cm. Oslo, Munch Museum

Ibsen in the Cafe of the Grand Hotel, Oslo. Ca. 1898. 7ox96 cm. For­ merly Berlin, Collection Jonas

Winter. 1899. 60.5x90 cm. Oslo, National Gallery

The Dance of Life. 1899/1900. 125x190 cm. Oslo, National Gallery The dead Mother. 1899/1900. 1oox9o cm. Bremen, Kunsthalle

Girls on a Bridge. 1900. 83x128 cm. Zurich, Kunsthaus

Girls on the Sea Shore. Ca. 1900. 90x148 cm. Hamburg, Kunsthalle Train Smoke. Ca. 1900. 85x!09 cm. Oslo, Munch Museum

The Frenchman (M. Archimard). 1901. 184 x 70 cm. Oslo, National Gallery

The German (Hermann Schlittgen). 1901. 2oox12o cm. Oslo, Munch Museum

Konsul Christer Sandberg. 1901. 21ox140 cm. Oslo, Munch Museum

Self-portrait after the Spanish flu. 43 x 61 cm. Chalk. 1920. Oslo, Munch Museum

The Island. 1901. 96x107 cm. Oslo, Collection A. M. Vik

The Three Faces of Woman. 1902. 162x252 cm. Bergen, Collection Rasmus Meyer

Summer Night on the Coast. 1902. 103 x 120 cm. Vienna, Kunsthisto­ risches Museum

Dr. Linde's Children. 1903. I44x I 99.5 cm. Liib"eck, Behnhaus

The House on the Shore. 1905. rn4x155 cm. Oslo, Collection Nils Werring

Self-Portrait. Weimar. I906. 11oxI2I cm. Oslo, Munch Museum Friedrich Nietzsche. I906. 201x160 cm. Stockholm, Tielska Galleriet The Death of Marat. I906. I51x206 cm. Oslo, Munch Museum Ernest Thiel. I907. About I90x90 cm. Stockholm, Tielska Galleriet Amor and Psyche. I907. II8x99 cm. Oslo, Munch Museum

Walther Rathenau. 1907. 20ox105 cm. Berlin, Markisches Museum Old Man in Warnemiinde. 1908. 110x85 cm. Oslo, Munch Museum Mason and Mechanic. 1908. 9ox68.5 cm. Oslo, Munch Museum Paintings for the walls of the Great Hall of Oslo University (History­ Alma Mater-The Sun). I909-I911

Christian Gierloff. 1910. 206x100 cm. Goteborg, Museum of Art

Old Borre with his red cheeks. Ca. 1910. 87x94 cm. Oslo, Munch Museum

Breaking up a Ship. I9I1. 10oxIIO cm. Oslo, Munch Museum Wood Cutter. 1913. 129x104 cm. Olso, Munch Museum Men bathing. 1915. 203x230 cm. Oslo, Munch Museum

Women bathing on the Cliffs (Summer). 1915. 15ox150 cm. Oslo, National Gallery

The Wrestler (Abessynian). 1915. 145x90 cm. Oslo, Collection Rolf Stenersen

Winter Landscape. Kragero. 1915. 93xIOI cm. Oslo, National Gallery Man in cabbage patch. 1916. 136x181 cm. Oslo, National Gallery Workers going home. 1916. 201x228 cm. Oslo, Munch Museum Ploughing with Horses. 19I9. 110.5x145.5 cm. Oslo, National Gallery Spanish Flu. Self-Portrait. 1919. 151x131 cm. Oslo National Gallery Kneeling Girl (Nude). Ca. 1920. About 12ox100 cm. Sweden, Private Collection

Wall paintings for Freia Chocolate Factory, Oslo. 1921/22 The Waves. 1921. 1oox120 cm. Oslo, Munch Museum The Kiss. I921. Oslo, Braaten Collection

Encounter. 192I (first version 1894). 84x105 cm. Oslo, Collection Rolf Stenersen

The Man-Mountain. Ca. 1925. 45ox780 cm. Oslo, Munch Museum YoungWoman seated on a Sofa (BirgitOlsen). 1925-1928. 136x115 cm. Oslo, Munch Museum

Self-Portrait at Ekely. 1926. 9zx73 cm. Oslo, Munch Museum Model and Easy-Chair. I929. I20X 100 cm. Oslo, Munch Museum

Old Fisherman in a wintry landscape. 1930. 10ox129 cm. Collection 0. L. Mohr

Blue Winter's Night. 1931. 10ox72 cm. Oslo, Collection Rolf Stenersen Mrs. Thomas Olsen. I932· 187x62 cm. Oslo, Collection Thomas Olsen Encounter with Gretchen (A modern Faust). I934f35. 105x120 cm. Oslo, Munch Museum

Women on the Beach. Ca. 1938. 8ox83 cm. Oslo, Munch Museum Self-Portrait. Between Clock and Bed. 1940. 15ox120 cm. Oslo, Munch Museum

Youth. I942. 13ox150 cm. Oslo, Munch Museum

Self-Portrait by the Window. 1942. 95x100 cm. Oslo, Munch Museum

15

1The Sick Child

11 9 . 5 x 1 1 8 . 5 cm. Oil on canvas. About 1 8 8 5 /1 8 86. Oslo, National Gallery

Munch wrote about this picture : "With 'The Sick Child' I broke new ground, it became the turning point in my art. Most of my later works owe their existence to this picture." And he continues : "I painted the picture several times within the course of one year-scratching it out, letting the colours run together-trying again and again to recapture the first impression : the pale, translucent skin-the trem­ bling mouth-the shaking hands." Admittedly the slow decline of a young girl, the tragically early death from consumption which at that time was still so frequent an occurrence had been represented in realist pictures many times before. But Munch could rightly claim : "I don't think any of these painters has lived through the experience

Spring. 1 6 9 x 264 cm. Oil on canvas. 1 8 89 . Oslo, National Gallery

they described down to the last agonizing cry of pain as I have done in 'The Sick Child. ' For it was not I alone who sat there. It was all my loved ones." The early death and painful suffering of his sister Sophie had been a deeply traumatic experience for Munch when he was a boy of fourteen, and it is this remembered agony that gives to the picture its tremendous psychological impact. Driven almost ob­ sessively by his own mental images, the artist created a new ex­ citing language of forms to enable him to express what was going on inside his soul . This caused offence in Norway because his language transgressed the bounds of conventional decorum. But this was for him the only way in which to achieve his artistic aims which were, in his own words : "to paint people who breathe and feel, who love and suffer." In the years to 1 92 7 he painted "The Sick Child" anew no less than six times. He also made use of the subject for an etching and a colour lithograph-further evidence of the lasting importance to him of this motif.

2 Portrait of Hans Jager

108 x 8 3 cm. Oil on canvas. 1 8 89 . Oslo, National Gallery

The man who is shown sitting in the corner of a sofa in a relaxed, casual posture, a glass of pjolter on the table in front of him, is Hans Jager, seaman, writer, philosopher, parliamentary stenographer, and undisputed leader of the "Christiania Boheme," a group whose radi­ cal ideas shocked the stolid bourgeoisie of Norway's capital. The impressions Munch received in this circle were very important for his mental and artistic development. Throughout his life he remain­ ed faithful to the memory of this old friend of his youth who died in 1 9 1 o-witness Jager's lithographed portrait completed a few days before Munch himself died in 1 944.

The portrait which dates from 1 8 8 9 still shows the influence of the realist conventions reigning in Norwegian painting at the time but we also discern clearly the transition to the boldly simplified ex­ pressive forms so characteristic for Munch's later style.

The highly individualistic personality of the sitter is expressed to perfection by his unconventional, nonchalant posture : the sideways leaning of the body is accentuated by the foreshortened edge of the table in the foreground which takes up the line made by the fastening of the coat. The writer's cool and critical eye looks straight at the beholder.

The over-all impression of the picture is determined by its wide range of blues, accompanied by earthily muted tones of violet and the contrasting light-coloured background effectively enhances the intensity of the other colours.

The

Bohemian's

Wedding.

13 8 x 1 8 1 cm . Oil on canvas.

192 5.

Oslo,

Munch

Museum

3 Spring in Karl-Johan Gade

8 1 x 1 00 cm. Oil on canvas. 1 89 1 . Bergen, Collection Rasmus Meyer

Munch's second stay in Paris 1 8 89/90 was particularly important for his artistic development. This painting is an instructive example of the influence of French Impressionism on his work. The subject itself, a street in a town, is typical for that movement, no less than the cheerful light palette and the cut-offs at the bottom edge which stress the immediacy of the visual experience. The dotted splashes

of complementary colours betray a close acquaintance with the Neo­ impressionist technique of Pointillism. Two years earlier Christian Krohg had written enthusiastically : "He is an Impressionist, the only one we have so far !" Munch might have been satisfied with what he had achieved. But for him it was merely a transitory stage leading to further development. His artistic aspirations could not be satisfied by depicting the magical appearence of the world around him : they led him to probe into ever deeper realms of interpretation. Karl-Johan Gade is the Boulevard of Oslo, a fashionable street and promenade. The squat silhouette of the Royal Palace is visible at the far end of the street.

Rue Lafayette.

92 x 7 3 cm. Oil on canvas. 1 89 1 . Oslo, National Gallery