We want more than a mere photograph of nature. We do not want to paint pretty pictures to be
hung on drawing-room walls. We want to create, or at least lay the foundations of, an art that gives
something to humanity. An art that arrests and engages. An art created of one's innermost heart."
(E.M.)
Edvard Munch was born December 12, 1863 in Loten, Norway. He was one of five children born
to Christian Munch, a military doctor, and his wife Catherine. Munch's life was always filled with
death and morbidity. In 1868, his mother died of tuberculosis. In 1877, his younger sister Sophie
also died of tuberculosis. Many of his pictures of death rooms, sick and dead children, and sick
and dead mothers were inspired by the illness, death, and grief that had haunted him in his early
years.
Edvard himself was also often ill. Edvard entered a technical college to become an engineer in
1879, but frequent illness drove him away. In 1880 he decided to leave school to study painting.
The next year, he enrolled in the Royal School of Art and Design where he painted his first
self-portrait.
For a time, Norway's leading artist, Christian Krohg, instructed Edvard. At that time Edvard also
was greatly interested in French Realism, which one can see traces of in his early works. In 1885,
Munch went to Paris to study. There he began a work called The Sick Child, which soon would be
his breakthrough. In it he made a radical break with the realistic approach of the time. The picture
was about his sister Sophie, and her death from Tuberculosis. Munch struggled with the
interpretation of his experience, and the pain and personal meaning that it held. Finally, he
finished a coarsely textured, laborious picture. The critics were harsh, and for a time after that his
works were less provocative, and more in tune with the times.
In 1889, his father died. Shortly thereafter, he painted Night. That same year, he organized an
exhibition of one hundred and ten works in the Student Organization in Christiania (modern day
Oslo). He also began to work on The Scream. In 1892, Edvard was invited by the Union of Berlin
Artists to exhibit at its November exhibition. However, Munch's paintings were the object of bitter
controversy, and after one week the exhibition was closed.
Edvard produced his first etchings and lithographs in 1894. That same year, Przybyszewski
published the first publication about Munch's art, which he characterized as 'psychological
realism.' A year later, Munch moved back to Berlin, then in 1896 back to Paris. There he
concentrated on graphic mediums, at the expense of his paintings. He produced elaborate color
lithographs, and began to produce woodcuts in partnership with the famous printer Auguste Clot.
In 1904 Munch joined the Berliner Secession. He also was drinking heavily at that time. In 1908,
he exhibited with Die Brucke, shortly after which he had a complete nervous breakdown. He spent
eight months in a mental clinic rehabilitating. He moved back to Norway in 1909, where he lived
out the rest of his life. After he moved back, he showed much more of an interest in nature in his
work, and he became less pessimistic and more colorful. He entered a competition to decorate the
University of Kristiania's new auditorium, the Aula, which he won after some debate. His designs
were installed in 1916, three years after he resigned from the Berlin Secession. That year he
bought a house outside of Kristiania, in a town called Ekely. There he lived, becoming more and
more isolated.
In 1917, Curt Glaser wrote and published a book called 'Edvard Munch.' In 1928, he discovered
he had cysts in his right eye, and five years later a broken blood vessel in his right eye caused
almost total blindness. When the Nazis invaded Norway in 1940, Munch refused all contact with
them, though they tried. Munch died peacefully at home on January 23, 1944. In his will, he
bequeathed 1,000 paintings, 15,400 prints, 4,500 drawings and watercolors, and six sculptures to
the city of Oslo, formerly Kristiania.
Munch was a very tormented, talented artist. Unfortunately for him, I believe a lot of his talent
came from his torment. However, even amidst the twisted action of his work, I think there is a
kind of beauty that can only come out of the repulsiveness. He truly had a style like no other, and
brought a new form of art into the world.
Bibliography
www.mnc.net/norway/munch.htm
www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/munch/
www.museumsnett.no/nasjanalgalleriet/munch/eng/innhold/biograf.html
. innermost heart."
(E.M.)
Edvard Munch was born December 12, 1863 in Loten, Norway. He was one of five children born
to Christian Munch, a military doctor,. instructed Edvard. At that time Edvard also
was greatly interested in French Realism, which one can see traces of in his early works. In 1885,
Munch went