Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch in 1921

The Dance of Life, Munch 1899/1900

Edvard Munch (12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter and print-maker. He was born in Adalsbruk. He was an expressionist who painted 1789 known paintings. He is well known for his treatment of emotion such as fear. His way of seeing things had a large influence on the expressionism of the 20th century. People saw this treatment as being intense.

During his life, he had success as a painter: He became famous outside Norway, and his paintings got high prices. The National Gallery (Norway) used much money to buy paintings by Munch. He painted a large murals in the aula (main room) of Norway's (then) only university.

Early life and education

He had four brothers and sisters. He had followed his mother and sister by being the best artists in their family. While Edvard was still young, his mother and one of his sisters died. But it was when he was thirteen that he really came to like art. The first paintings he did were simple objects like medicine bottles and other objects. Later on, he drew oil paintings.

He went to technical college in 1879 where he learnt how to draw paintings with perspective. However, in 1880, the following year he left the school to become a painter.

He went to the Royal School of Art and Design. This is where he learnt sculpturing and naturalistic painting. This is where he drew his first important portrait of himself and his father.

Health and death

Munch was ill very often. Many scientists think that he suffered from bipolar disorder (manic depression). He died at his house in Oslo.

Paintings

The Scream (1893; originally called Despair). This is Munch's best-known painting, and is one of the best known images in the world. It is one of the pieces in a series titled The Frieze of Life. In the series Munch explored the themes of life, love, fear, death and melancholy.

The Frieze of Life themes come back throughout Munch's work. These themes can be seen in paintings such as The Sick Child (1886, portrait of his deceased sister Sophie), (1893–1894), Ashes (1894), and The Bridge. The last-named shows limp figures. Those figures have faces with no features, or they have no faces at all. Threatening shapes of heavy trees and houses are above the figures. Munch portrayed women either as frail, innocent sufferers or as lurid, life-devouring vampires. Munch analysts say this reflects his sexual anxieties.

The painting entitled Life by Edvard Munch at the Rådhuset (Oslo City Hall) in Oslo. The room is called The Munch room

See the main article: List of paintings by Edvard Munch

• 1885-86: The Sick Child
• 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
• 1903: Village in Moonlight
• 1940–1942: Self Portrait: Between Clock and Bed

• Some famous paintings
• 
  The Scream. 1893. Oil, tempera, and pastel on cardboard. Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo
• 
  The Dance of Life. 1899–1900. Oil on canvas, 49​¹⁄₂ × 75 in. Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo
• 
  Ashes. 1894. Oil on canvas. 120.5 × 141 cm. Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo
• 
  Madonna. 1894. Oil on canvas. 90 × 68 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo

Other paintings

• 
  The Seine at Saint-Cloud. 1890. 46 × 38 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  At the Roulette Table in Monte Carlo. 1892. 74,5 × 116 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  August Strindberg. 1892. Oil on canvas, 120 × 90 cm. Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm, Sweden
• 
  Death in the Sickroom. 1893. 134 × 160 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  Starry Night. 1893. 135.6 × 140 cm. J. Paul Getty Museum.
• 
  Vampire. 1895. 91 × 109 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  Anxiety. 1894. 94 × 74 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  Death in the Sickroom. c. 1895. Oil on canvas. 59 × 66 in. Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo
• 
  Lady From the Sea (detail). 1896. Oil on canvas. 39​¹⁄₂ × 126 in.
• 
  Evening. Melancholy I. 1896. 41.1 × 55.7 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  Separation. 1896. 96 × 127 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  The Voice / Summer Night. 1896. 90 × 119 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  The Kiss. 1897. 99 × 81 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  Inheritance. 1897–99. 141 × 120 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  Metabolism. 1898–99. 172 × 142 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  Red and White. 1899–1900. 93 × 129 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  Train Smoke. 1900. 84 × 109 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  Consul Christen Sandberg. 1901. 215 × 147 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  Kiss IV. 1902. 47 × 47 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  Four Girls in Åsgårdstrand. 1903. 87 × 111 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  The Brooch. Eva Mudocci. 1903. 76 × 53.2 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  Shore with Red House. 1904. 69 × 109 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  Portrait of Friedrich Nietzsche (1906). Thielska Galleriet, Stockholm
• 
  Death of Marat I (1907)
• 
  Jealousy. 1907. 75 × 98 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  The Sun. 1910–11. 450 × 772 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  Galloping Horse. 1910–12. 148 × 120 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  The Yellow Log. 1912. 129.5 × 159.5 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  On the Sofa. 1913. 80 × 150 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  Weeping Nude. 1913–14. 110 × 135 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  Golgotha.1900.
• 
  Workers on their Way Home. 1913–14. 227 × 201 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo

Nudes

• 
  Puberty. 1894-95.
• 
  The Hands. 1893.
• 
  Seated Nude. 1902.
• 
  Weeping woman. 1907-1909.
• 
  Morning Yawn. 1913.
• 
  Naked model by the wicker chair. 1919.

Self-portraits

• 
  Self-Portrait. 1882. 26 × 19 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  Self-Portrait. 1895. 458 × 314 mm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  Self-Portrait in Hell. 1903. 82 × 66 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  Self-Portrait with Brushes. 1904. 197 × 91 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  Self-Portrait with a Bottle of Wine. 1906. 110 × 120 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo

Photographs

• 
  Self-Portrait at 53 Am Strom in Warnemünde. 1907. 89 × 89 mm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  Edvard Munch at the Beach in Warnemünde. 1907. 83 × 87 mm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  Self-Portrait “à la Marat”. 1908–09. 81 × 85 mm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  Self-Portrait Somewhere on the Continent I. 1906. 90 × 90 mm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  Self-Portrait Somewhere on the Continent II. 1906. 82 × 87 mm. Munch Museum, Oslo
• 
  Portrait at 26 years
• 
  Portrait of Edvard Munch 1902
• 
  Portrait of Edvard Munch
• 
  Portrait of Edvard Munch 1929
• 
  Munch in 1912
• 
  Rosa Meissner at the Hotel Rohn in Warnemünde. 1907. Photograph. 87 × 73 mm. Munch Museum, Oslo

Paintings by year

Image	Name	Year	Information	Where the painting is (now)
	Telthusbakken with Gamle Aker Church	1880	The hill, Telthusbakken ('tent-house hill') is in Oslo	It is not known where the painting is (as of the 2020s).
	Øvre Foss	1880	The place is in Oslo, Norway.	Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway
	Small Lake with Boat	1880		In a museum in Oslo
	Boat with Three Boys	c. 1886		In a museum in Oslo
	Man on the Veranda	1886		Kreeger Museum, Washingtion, DC. USA
	From Hisøya near Arendal	1886		Unknown
	Woman and Children in Arendal	1886		Private collection
	Self-portrait	c. 1888		In a museum in Oslo
	Aasta Carlsen	1888–89	She was a painter. Other pictures of her, and her other name	In a museum in Oslo
	Spring	1889		National Museum, Oslo
	Summer Night. Inger on the Beach	1889	It is a portrait of Munch's youngest sister Inger.	Kode Bergen (Norway)
	Night in Saint-Cloud	1890		National Museum, Oslo
	In the Bar	1890		Städtische Galerie im Städelschen Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt am Main
	In the Café	1890		In a museum in Oslo
	Woman in Evening Landscape	1890		In a museum in Oslo
	Evening. Melancholy	1891		In a museum in Oslo
	The Storm	1893	In the painting, the trees [bend or] are diagonal; Another sign of the storm, is the way that the sky is shown.	Museum of Modern Art, New York City; The painting is being shown (as of the summer of 2024) in Munch Musem (Oslo), at an exhibition that ends in August.
	Puberty	1894–95		National Museum, Oslo
	Anxiety	1894	In a museum in Oslo
	Separation	1896		In a museum in Oslo
	Summer Night. The Voice	1896		In a museum in Oslo
	Felix Auerbach	1906	Other pictures of Auerbach, a physicist	Unknown
	Self-Portrait against Red Background	1906		In a museum in Oslo
	Friedrich Nietzsche	1906	Only in a few cases did Munch, make portraits from photographs (instead of live models). Munch never met Friedrich Nietzsche. Photographs were used, while Munch made painting of Nietzsche. The painting was ordered by (and paid for) by Ernest Thiel.	Thiel Gallery (in Djurgården), Stockholm, Sweden
	Friedrich Nietzsche	1906		In a museum in Oslo
	Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche	1906	She was the younger sister of Friedrich Nietzsche	In a museum in Oslo
	Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche	1906		Thiel Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden
	Albert Kollmann	1906	Other pictures of Kollmann	In a museum in Oslo
	Desire	1906–07		In a museum in Oslo
	Ernest Thiel	1907	Ernest Thiel built the house (1905) where the Thiel Gallery is (as of the 2020s). Other pictures of Thiel	Thiel Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden
	The Harbour in Lübeck	1907	Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland
	The Coast near Lübeck	1907	National Gallery in Prague, Czech Republic
	Rodin's "Le Penseur" in Dr. Linde's Garden	1907	Pictures of art collector Max Linde (or Dr. Linde from Germany)	Musée Rodin, Paris, France
	Self-Portrait in Profile	1907		In a museum in Oslo
	Female Portrait	1907		In a museum in Oslo
	Portrait of an Old Man	1907		In a museum in Oslo
	Old Man in Warnemünde	1907		In a museum in Oslo
	Street in Warnemünde	1907		In a museum in Oslo
	Women and Children in Warnemünde	1907		In a museum in Oslo
	The Drowned Boy	1907–08		In a museum in Oslo
	Worker and Child	1907		In a museum in Oslo
	Mason and Mechanic	1907–08		In a museum in Oslo
	Bathing Men	1907		In a museum in Oslo
	Bathing Men	1907		In a museum in Oslo
	Bathing Men	1907–08	Ateneum, Helsinki, Finland
	The Death of Marat	1907	Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway
	The Death of Marat	1907	Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway
	Cupid and Psyche	1907	Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway
	Consolation	1907	Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway
	Woman with Children	1907	Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway
	Cupido	1907	Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway
	Weeping Woman	1907	Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway
	Weeping Woman	1907	Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway
	Weeping Woman	1907–09	The Art Museums in Bergen, Norway. Bergen Art Museum (Stenersen's collection)
	Weeping Woman	1907	Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway
	Weeping Woman	1907–09	Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway
	Olga and Rosa Meissner	1907	Kode Bergen (Norway)
	Olga and Rosa Meissner	1907	In a museum in Oslo
	Zum Süssen Mädel	1907	In a museum in Oslo
	Jealousy	c. 1907	In a museum in Oslo
	The Sick Child	1907	Tate Modern, London
	The Sun	1910–11	In a museum in Oslo.

Other websites

• Biography from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• The Munch Museum
• Gallery Munch - Løten Archived 2020-08-20 at the Wayback Machine
• Munch at artcyclopedia
• Catalogue raisonné of Edvard Munch's paintings. Archived 2009-03-10 at the Wayback Machine
• Edvard Munch Archived 2010-02-11 at the Wayback Machine
• Interpol's page Archived 2006-03-26 at the Wayback Machine about the stolen works of art

Munch and bipolar disorder:

• Rothenberg A. Bipolar illness, creativity, and treatment. Psychiatr Q. 2001 Summer;72(2):131-47.
• Edvard Munch in Germany Archived 2006-06-14 at the Wayback Machine