Edvard MUNCH (1863-1944)
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Art on paper Man and woman Groups
Chronology : 19th century 1890-1899 1895 1900-1909 1902 1904 1907 1926
See also : Art on paper Man and woman Groups
Chronology : 19th century 1890-1899 1895 1900-1909 1902 1904 1907 1926
1892 Woman looking in the Mirror
2012 SOLD for $ 5.1M by Sotheby's
An impressionist painter, Edvard Munch suddenly changed his style in 1892 for an expressionism heavily loaded by symbolism and voyeurism, far away from real behaviors.
An oil on canvas 92 x 73 cm features a fully dressed woman standing in a room, an armchair behind her. She is decentered to the left as Degas could have done.
The title provides the explanation : Kvinne som speiler seg (Woman looking in the mirror). The mirror is out of field. A pale light is brought through a window fitted with white curtains that provides an access to the external world. Her hand prepares her long dark hair for combing. An atmosphere of loneliness anticipates the Scream, conceived in the same year and executed later.
This painting had been exhibited in 1892 in Kristiania. A follow in Berlin in November met with imperial censorship. It was sold for $ 5.1M by Sotheby's on May 2, 2012, lot 52. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
An oil on canvas 92 x 73 cm features a fully dressed woman standing in a room, an armchair behind her. She is decentered to the left as Degas could have done.
The title provides the explanation : Kvinne som speiler seg (Woman looking in the mirror). The mirror is out of field. A pale light is brought through a window fitted with white curtains that provides an access to the external world. Her hand prepares her long dark hair for combing. An atmosphere of loneliness anticipates the Scream, conceived in the same year and executed later.
This painting had been exhibited in 1892 in Kristiania. A follow in Berlin in November met with imperial censorship. It was sold for $ 5.1M by Sotheby's on May 2, 2012, lot 52. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
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1893-1894 Sunrise at Asgardstrand
2021 SOLD for $ 5.3M by Sotheby's
Endeavoring to express the soul, Edvard Munch departed from pictorial reality in the attitude of the characters but also in the landscapes.
From 1889 he enjoyed spending summer and holidays at Åsgårdstrand, a resort south of Christiania.
A Sunrise at Åsgårdstrand features the sun just over the horizon, creating in the sea an unrealistic bright reflection that somehow anticipates the flashes of Clyfford Still and the shearing zips of Barnett Newman. This beam is repeated but weakened in the upper window of the house, creating in this uninhabited scene an emotional link between celestial and human.
This oil on canvas 65 x 89 cm painted in 1893-1894 was sold for $ 5.3M from a lower estimate of $ 2M by Sotheby's on November 17, 2021, lot 16. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
From 1889 he enjoyed spending summer and holidays at Åsgårdstrand, a resort south of Christiania.
A Sunrise at Åsgårdstrand features the sun just over the horizon, creating in the sea an unrealistic bright reflection that somehow anticipates the flashes of Clyfford Still and the shearing zips of Barnett Newman. This beam is repeated but weakened in the upper window of the house, creating in this uninhabited scene an emotional link between celestial and human.
This oil on canvas 65 x 89 cm painted in 1893-1894 was sold for $ 5.3M from a lower estimate of $ 2M by Sotheby's on November 17, 2021, lot 16. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
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The Scream
Intro
The Scream by Edvard Munch has every reason to be the most famous image of modern art.
The artist, exalted by the meaning of life, is constantly navigating the limits of a morbid insanity. In 1889, during the Exposition Universelle in Paris, he is fascinated by the intensity of emotions expressed by Van Gogh, Gauguin and Toulouse-Lautrec.
In early 1892, Munch lives his own road to Damascus. He sees the sky ablaze at sunset, like an indomitable force of nature which has invaded the fjord in a terrible explosion of colors. He writes in his notebook a short poem stating that the happening had generated an intense fatigue to him.
No doubt he was mesmerized by this vision for over a year, before daring to translate the memory of his anxiety as a painting and a pastel with a title evocating his inspiration: the Scream of Nature.
The artist, exalted by the meaning of life, is constantly navigating the limits of a morbid insanity. In 1889, during the Exposition Universelle in Paris, he is fascinated by the intensity of emotions expressed by Van Gogh, Gauguin and Toulouse-Lautrec.
In early 1892, Munch lives his own road to Damascus. He sees the sky ablaze at sunset, like an indomitable force of nature which has invaded the fjord in a terrible explosion of colors. He writes in his notebook a short poem stating that the happening had generated an intense fatigue to him.
No doubt he was mesmerized by this vision for over a year, before daring to translate the memory of his anxiety as a painting and a pastel with a title evocating his inspiration: the Scream of Nature.
1
masterpiece
1893 The Scream of Nature
Nationalmuseet Oslo
The 1893 oil, tempera and pastel on cardboard was the first publicly displayed version.
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1 bis
1895 2nd pastel
2012 SOLD for $ 120M by Sotheby's
It took Munch another two years to exorcise his anxiety. In 1895, he made a second pastel, 79 x 59 cm, sold for $ 120M from an expectation of $ 80M by Sotheby's on May 2, 2012. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The pastel of 1895 is exceptional. This is the only version where the artist has included the poem, hand painted into the frame. The two friends are still there in the distance, but are not any more interested in the scene, leaving the main character lonely struggling with his own dehumanization.
Now conscious of having created a masterpiece, he prepares in the same year the first lithography.
The fourth and last version of Munch's Scream is much later. The 1895 pastel is the only one of the four artworks to be still in private hands, and it had been little seen outside Norway.
The pastel of 1895 is exceptional. This is the only version where the artist has included the poem, hand painted into the frame. The two friends are still there in the distance, but are not any more interested in the scene, leaving the main character lonely struggling with his own dehumanization.
Now conscious of having created a masterpiece, he prepares in the same year the first lithography.
The fourth and last version of Munch's Scream is much later. The 1895 pastel is the only one of the four artworks to be still in private hands, and it had been little seen outside Norway.
1894 Vampire
2008 SOLD for $ 38M by Sotheby's
Munch knew to mingle love and death as exampled by his Madonna. He was an illustrator concerned about the disclosure of his work, who made his oils on canvas in a small number of examples and added lithographic issues with a virtually identical drawing. As a result, this female "vampire", with her flame-color long hair, kissing on the neck of her lover, is an image that the auction news bring us often.
The Vampire was painted in four copies in 1893-1894. The only oil on canvas in private handshad been loaned during ten years to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was sold for $ 38M by Sotheby's on November 3, 2008. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The Vampire was painted in four copies in 1893-1894. The only oil on canvas in private handshad been loaned during ten years to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was sold for $ 38M by Sotheby's on November 3, 2008. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
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masterpiece
1894 Madonna
Munch Museum, Oslo
The two masterpieces in the imaging of Edvard Munch, The Scream and Madonna, were conceived in the same year, 1893. Anxiety and fertility express the great question of life and it is tempting to view them as a pair.
Madonna is a pretty woman whose model Dagny Juel was admired by the artist. She is nude and standing, displayed down to the hips. The head is tilted back and the closed eyes are waiting for pleasure. The red lips express pain according to the explanation provided by the artist and bring this ambiguous idol close to the Vampyr, another of the favorite themes of Munch at the same time. The sinister background marks the uncertainty of the future.
Munch designed for his first Madonna the red blood frame on which sperms are slipping and which is broken at the bottom left to display the fetus, a symbol of death since it is lethal outside a woman's body. This unique frame was not kept.
The painting is preceding the lithograph in black and white, which is the subject of various color trials by the artist for choosing the best balance for his future color lithographs.
The image of the 1894 version is shared by Wikimedia.
Madonna is a pretty woman whose model Dagny Juel was admired by the artist. She is nude and standing, displayed down to the hips. The head is tilted back and the closed eyes are waiting for pleasure. The red lips express pain according to the explanation provided by the artist and bring this ambiguous idol close to the Vampyr, another of the favorite themes of Munch at the same time. The sinister background marks the uncertainty of the future.
Munch designed for his first Madonna the red blood frame on which sperms are slipping and which is broken at the bottom left to display the fetus, a symbol of death since it is lethal outside a woman's body. This unique frame was not kept.
The painting is preceding the lithograph in black and white, which is the subject of various color trials by the artist for choosing the best balance for his future color lithographs.
The image of the 1894 version is shared by Wikimedia.
masterpiece
1899-1900 The Dance of Life
Nasjonalgalleriet Oslo
The meaning of Love was a great obsession to Edvard Munch. He began in 1893 an autobiographical series of paintings which will soon be titled Frieze of Life - a Poem about Life, Love and Death. The series includes the most poignant works by Munch : The Scream, Vampire, Madonna, The Kiss, Angst, Melancholy.
The Dance of Life, painted in 1899-1900, is a summary of the theme. In the foreground the dancing couple is a self portrait with his first love Millie. Youth and old age are respectively on their left and right side, looking at the viewer. They both are the same woman, his new partner Tulla, in bridal gown and mourning garb.
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
That mystic quest comes in the same period as Gauguin's D'où venons nous? Que sommes nous? Où allons nous? painted about two years earlier.
The Dance of Life, painted in 1899-1900, is a summary of the theme. In the foreground the dancing couple is a self portrait with his first love Millie. Youth and old age are respectively on their left and right side, looking at the viewer. They both are the same woman, his new partner Tulla, in bridal gown and mourning garb.
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
That mystic quest comes in the same period as Gauguin's D'où venons nous? Que sommes nous? Où allons nous? painted about two years earlier.
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1902 Girls on the Bridge
2016 SOLD for $ 55M by Sotheby's
Edvard Munch wants to be the artist of existence. His project for a frieze series on life, love and death makes him busy since 1893 but does not calm the emotional instability of his own life.
The legitimate hope for a happy life mercilessly leads to the forbidden love with the Vampire, the untold abortion of Madonna and the open madness of the Scream. The line and color are a scathing expression, after Gauguin and Van Gogh, before Matisse, Kirchner and Kandinsky.
His characters play the tragedy of a mental loneliness which is not canceled by their presence in or near a group. Sometimes the stage is guarded on one side by an endless railing over which one or more actors will come at some time to meditate while leaning over the water. This theatrical similarity is the terrible common feature between the Scream, paroxysm of terror, and the very peaceful Girls on the bridge.
In 1901 and 1902, Munch painted several versions of Girls on the bridge, with various position of the characters. One of these artworks brings a little more hope than the other ones. Far away from the suicidal railing, it displays a tight group of four in an attitude conducive to opening a discussion but indeed still not to the exchange of secrets. The scenery is a realistic rendering of a bridge at Åsgårdstrand.
This oil on canvas 101 x 102 cm painted in 1902 was sold by Sotheby's for $ 31M on May 7, 2008, lot 25 and for $ 55M on November 14, 2016, lot 12.
The legitimate hope for a happy life mercilessly leads to the forbidden love with the Vampire, the untold abortion of Madonna and the open madness of the Scream. The line and color are a scathing expression, after Gauguin and Van Gogh, before Matisse, Kirchner and Kandinsky.
His characters play the tragedy of a mental loneliness which is not canceled by their presence in or near a group. Sometimes the stage is guarded on one side by an endless railing over which one or more actors will come at some time to meditate while leaning over the water. This theatrical similarity is the terrible common feature between the Scream, paroxysm of terror, and the very peaceful Girls on the bridge.
In 1901 and 1902, Munch painted several versions of Girls on the bridge, with various position of the characters. One of these artworks brings a little more hope than the other ones. Far away from the suicidal railing, it displays a tight group of four in an attitude conducive to opening a discussion but indeed still not to the exchange of secrets. The scenery is a realistic rendering of a bridge at Åsgårdstrand.
This oil on canvas 101 x 102 cm painted in 1902 was sold by Sotheby's for $ 31M on May 7, 2008, lot 25 and for $ 55M on November 14, 2016, lot 12.
Edvard Munch’s ‘Girls on the Bridge’ will headline our Impressionist & Modern Art sales this November: https://t.co/tMh6b1ZWyv pic.twitter.com/SF0jHnPYDD
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) October 21, 2016
1902 Summer Night, Asgardstrand
2018 SOLD for $ 11.3M by Sotheby's
In 1902 Edvard Munch is not far away from madness. His erotic affair with a new mistress will end in September in dramatic brawl and separation. Once again he looks in summer for the quietness of his beloved Åsgårdstrand.
The endless twilight of Scandinavia provides special colors and atmosphere when the reddish glow of sunset never completely fades. Summer Night (Sommernatt) expresses a night scene in stronger colors and distorted perspective of his house from the garden. The starry sky is represented by a modified Ursa Major, a symbol of the north.
This oil on canvas 115 x 101 cm was sold by Sotheby's for $ 4.5M on May 3, 2005, lot 20 and for $ 11.3M on May 14, 2018, lot 36. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The endless twilight of Scandinavia provides special colors and atmosphere when the reddish glow of sunset never completely fades. Summer Night (Sommernatt) expresses a night scene in stronger colors and distorted perspective of his house from the garden. The starry sky is represented by a modified Ursa Major, a symbol of the north.
This oil on canvas 115 x 101 cm was sold by Sotheby's for $ 4.5M on May 3, 2005, lot 20 and for $ 11.3M on May 14, 2018, lot 36. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
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1904-1908 Sommertag
2021 SOLD for £ 16.3M by Sotheby's
The cycle of life is the great obsession of Edvard Munch. The stages from love to death are an inexorable tragedy generating a growing anguish : illusion, despair, infidelity, jealousy, humiliation, separation. The artist himself fails to peacefully satiate his sex life.
His meeting in 1902 with Dr. Linde is a relief. Linde, a great fan of Rodin, immediately writes a monograph on Munch's art. In 1904 he commissions a series of paintings from the artist to decorate the children's room in his villa in Lübeck.
Munch achieves this project with about eleven pieces, mostly beach scenes. The artist's old demons have not been annihilated : Linde rejects the set because a few couples are too risque to be seen by his young sons. The paintings, which will be identified as the Linde frieze, are returned to Munch.
Sommertag, summer day, oil on canvas 90 x 195 cm, is an opus from the Linde cycle. Groups of girls symbolize innocence. Unlike Girls on the Bridge, the characters lose their individuality : white dresses and long blond hair are intertwined in blocks.
Munch reworks this painting at an undetermined date. The image becomes Omfavnelse, the embrace. A dark couple has been added to the foreground. The blurry man lowers his head to kiss the woman whose oversized black-rimmed eyes express partner rejection and fear. They are transparent ghosts through which we can see the sea and the shore. The Scream, in 1893, left the possibility of some rescue. Omfavnelse is the post mortem phase. Its terminus ante quem is the great breakdown of the artist in 1908.
Summer day - the Embrace was sold by Sotheby's for £ 6.2M on February 7, 2006, lot 34, and for £ 16.3M on March 25, 2021, lot 115. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
His meeting in 1902 with Dr. Linde is a relief. Linde, a great fan of Rodin, immediately writes a monograph on Munch's art. In 1904 he commissions a series of paintings from the artist to decorate the children's room in his villa in Lübeck.
Munch achieves this project with about eleven pieces, mostly beach scenes. The artist's old demons have not been annihilated : Linde rejects the set because a few couples are too risque to be seen by his young sons. The paintings, which will be identified as the Linde frieze, are returned to Munch.
Sommertag, summer day, oil on canvas 90 x 195 cm, is an opus from the Linde cycle. Groups of girls symbolize innocence. Unlike Girls on the Bridge, the characters lose their individuality : white dresses and long blond hair are intertwined in blocks.
Munch reworks this painting at an undetermined date. The image becomes Omfavnelse, the embrace. A dark couple has been added to the foreground. The blurry man lowers his head to kiss the woman whose oversized black-rimmed eyes express partner rejection and fear. They are transparent ghosts through which we can see the sea and the shore. The Scream, in 1893, left the possibility of some rescue. Omfavnelse is the post mortem phase. Its terminus ante quem is the great breakdown of the artist in 1908.
Summer day - the Embrace was sold by Sotheby's for £ 6.2M on February 7, 2006, lot 34, and for £ 16.3M on March 25, 2021, lot 115. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
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1905 House by the Shore
2002 SOLD for £ 5.2M by Christie's
1905 is a dramatic year in Norway. The personal union under the Bernadotte dynasty imposed with Sweden after the Napoleonic wars leads to a threat of war before being dissolved at the end of the year.
After a much troubled personal life in the previous years, Edvard Munch does not escape the collective paranoia, challenging visitors and going to brawl.
Painted in that year, House by the Shore is a view of his beloved Åsgårdstrand. At first glance the village is quiet, with a sort of procession at the lower right. This is contradicted by the blown gate of the house and by a bell shaped wrap around the two tall leafless trees, like a transparent coffin expressing the pessimistic mood.
This oil on canvas 100 x 130 cm had been qualified as degenerate art by the Nazis. It was sold for £ 5.2M from a lower estimate of £ 1M by Christie's on February 4, 2002, lot 33. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
After a much troubled personal life in the previous years, Edvard Munch does not escape the collective paranoia, challenging visitors and going to brawl.
Painted in that year, House by the Shore is a view of his beloved Åsgårdstrand. At first glance the village is quiet, with a sort of procession at the lower right. This is contradicted by the blown gate of the house and by a bell shaped wrap around the two tall leafless trees, like a transparent coffin expressing the pessimistic mood.
This oil on canvas 100 x 130 cm had been qualified as degenerate art by the Nazis. It was sold for £ 5.2M from a lower estimate of £ 1M by Christie's on February 4, 2002, lot 33. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1907 Dance on the Beach
2023 SOLD for £ 17M by Sotheby's
Max Reinhardt, recently appointed director of the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, extended it with a Kammerspiele (chamber theater) in 1905. Two plays by Ibsen were successively scheduled in that new place, starting with a replay of Ghosts, a haunting story about modern morality.
Reinhardt entrusts the decoration of the four walls of the entrance of the Kammerspiele to Edvard Munch who as a Norwegian was a compatriot of Ibsen and who worked on similar themes.
Munch executes an immersive suite of twelve friezes 90 cm high in his signature themes, made in tempera on canvas as a tribute to the Renaissance frescoes. The whole work is nearly completed in December 1907.
The largest piece is a Dance on the Beach 4 m long, which is a remake of the Dance of Life that had closed the Frieze of Life in 1900. The new composition is extended on both sides to the empty beach. Other significant opus titles are Desire and Melancholy, also staged in a summer night on the beach outside Munch's house in Aasgaardstrand.
The Reinhardt Frieze was removed from the theater in 1912. Its Dance was acquired by a patron and biographer of the artist, who lost it in an auction forced by the Nazis in 1933. Another friend of Munch managed to acquire it in 1938. After a few months of use in a liner, the painting was hidden in a barn during the Second World War.
After a settlement agreement between the descendants of the two friends of the artist, it was sold for £ 17M from a lower estimate of £ 12M for sale by Sotheby's on March 1, 2023, lot 110. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Reinhardt entrusts the decoration of the four walls of the entrance of the Kammerspiele to Edvard Munch who as a Norwegian was a compatriot of Ibsen and who worked on similar themes.
Munch executes an immersive suite of twelve friezes 90 cm high in his signature themes, made in tempera on canvas as a tribute to the Renaissance frescoes. The whole work is nearly completed in December 1907.
The largest piece is a Dance on the Beach 4 m long, which is a remake of the Dance of Life that had closed the Frieze of Life in 1900. The new composition is extended on both sides to the empty beach. Other significant opus titles are Desire and Melancholy, also staged in a summer night on the beach outside Munch's house in Aasgaardstrand.
The Reinhardt Frieze was removed from the theater in 1912. Its Dance was acquired by a patron and biographer of the artist, who lost it in an auction forced by the Nazis in 1933. Another friend of Munch managed to acquire it in 1938. After a few months of use in a liner, the painting was hidden in a barn during the Second World War.
After a settlement agreement between the descendants of the two friends of the artist, it was sold for £ 17M from a lower estimate of £ 12M for sale by Sotheby's on March 1, 2023, lot 110. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1926 Self Portrait with a Palette
2021 SOLD for £ 4.3M by Sotheby's
An artist does not only create and disclose his conception of the world, he also seeks his place in it. From 1882 to 1943 Edvard Munch painted self-portraits on which he is always surly, even circa 1940 when eating a head of cod.
In 1926 he has become famous. For ten years, in Ekely near Oslo, he cultivates his garden as Monet did in Giverny. At 63, eighteen years after his great breakdown and seven years after the Spanish flu, his health problems have disappeared.
A self-portrait with a palette, oil on canvas 90 x 68 cm painted in 1926, was sold for £ 4.3M by Sotheby's on March 25, 2021, lot 114.
In this image, the weather is fine and the open shirt collar shows a certain relaxation. The attitude, however, is particularly repulsive. He does not seek to communicate but to identify where he is in his own life cycle. The palette is the symbol of his main activity, the only one that can accompany his mystical questioning.
In 1926 he has become famous. For ten years, in Ekely near Oslo, he cultivates his garden as Monet did in Giverny. At 63, eighteen years after his great breakdown and seven years after the Spanish flu, his health problems have disappeared.
A self-portrait with a palette, oil on canvas 90 x 68 cm painted in 1926, was sold for £ 4.3M by Sotheby's on March 25, 2021, lot 114.
In this image, the weather is fine and the open shirt collar shows a certain relaxation. The attitude, however, is particularly repulsive. He does not seek to communicate but to identify where he is in his own life cycle. The palette is the symbol of his main activity, the only one that can accompany his mystical questioning.
#AuctionUpdate The first formal self-portrait by #EdvardMunch to come to the market in 15 years sells for £4.3 million in its auction debut. pic.twitter.com/HjwD1oAFX1
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) March 25, 2021
