Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch (Norwegian Edvard Munch; December 12, 1863, Löthen, Norway - January 23, 1944, Ekely, near Oslo, Norway - Norwegian painter and graphic artist, expressionist. Suffered from manic-depressive psychosis.

Munch's most famous work is the painting "The Scream", more precisely, it was a series of similar paintings. Initially, the picture was called "Despair". The image of horror from this picture, which Munch honed for the rest of his life, now serves as one of the symbols of conceptual art in general.

Edvard Munch was the second child of military doctor Christian Munch. When Edward was five years old, his mother died of tuberculosis, and in 1877 his older sister Sophie, who was fifteen years old, died of the same disease.

In 1879, Munch entered the Higher Technical School in Oslo, but soon moved to the State Academy of Arts and Crafts. At first, his teacher was the sculptor Middletun, and since 1882, the painter Christian Krogh.

In 1885 he was given the opportunity to make a trip to Paris, where he visited the eighth and last exhibition of the Impressionists. At the same time, he created his first widely known painting, The Sick Girl, which reflected the illness and death of Sophie Munch. The first personal exhibition of the artist took place in 1889. Then he went to Europe thanks to a scholarship, lived in Paris and Berlin.

In Germany, Munch exhibited with local artists, but his paintings provoked a scandal, so his exhibition was closed ahead of schedule. Later, many of these artists entered the Berlin Secession. There, Munch became close friends with the Polish writer Stanisław Pshibyszewski and his Norwegian wife Danya Pshibyszewska (née Zhuel). The latter became Munch's muse for several years. She posed for him for many famous paintings, including "Madonna", "Vampire", "Jealousy", "The Kiss".

In the late 1890s, Munch worked on a series of paintings called Frieze of Life - a poem about love, life and death. It includes works united by the themes of love, femininity, fear, despair and death. During his life, Munch created many of these paintings in several versions, returning to the same topic again and again. For example, "Madonna" and "Sick Girl" exist in five copies each. In 1893, Munch created The Scream, his most famous work. The Scream is considered a landmark event of Expressionism; Munch managed to convey the horror that gripped the hero by purely artistic means: colors and wriggling lines, in the center of which is the hero.

At the turn of the 1900s, Munch had an unsuccessful affair with a wealthy young Norwegian woman. She was in love with the artist and insisted on the wedding, which weighed heavily on him. This went on for about four years, and one day in 1902, Munch's girlfriend and friends played a prank on him, saying that the girl had died and showing her body. According to the plan, the “resurrection” of the girl was supposed to inflame the feelings of the artist. Munch endured the prank very painfully, on the same day a quarrel broke out between him and his friends, in which Munch injured his left hand, and later his finger was amputated.

Later, he got into quarrels several more times with acquaintances and strangers, in the end, in 1908, he was placed in a psychiatric clinic in Copenhagen with a mental disorder. In total, he spent more than six months there. During his stay at the clinic, Munch left drawings and engravings, including a portrait of Professor Jacobson who treated him.

Starting in 1909, Munch's style changed towards a more harsh and rough manner. Later paintings are painted with broad strokes and are replete with bright contrasting colors. In the 1920s, the artist developed an eye disease, due to which he almost completely stopped writing.

In the last decades of his life, fame and recognition came to Munch. In the largest cities of Europe, his personal exhibitions were held, in 1933 he became a holder of the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Olaf.

Museum

In Oslo, there is the Munch Museum, opened in 1963, from which on August 22, 2004, the canvases “The Scream” and “Madonna” were stolen by two armed criminals. In May 2006, three accused of the theft were sentenced to prison terms, and in August the police were able to locate the works. During the time they were in the hands of the thieves, both canvases were damaged: they had scratches and traces of moisture, the canvases were torn.

According to a museum spokesman, the stain in the corner of the painting "The Scream" will remain noticeable. “The restorers did not want to take any irreversible actions,” the museum said, adding that in the future, methods may appear to remove the stain from the painting.

Mercury crater named after Munch.