LIFE AS MYTH

Index

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JOURNAL

Index

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JOURNAL 2008

venus

Impressions at sunrise

Finding the inner muse

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AUTUMN 2008

Portraits of self

Index 2008

Piero della Francesca 1460

Caterina van Hemessen 1548

Giuseppe Arcimboldo 1575

Marie-Denise Villers 1801

Mary Cassatt 1878

Édouard Manet 1879

Odilon Redon 1880

Berthe Morisot 1887

Edvard Munch 1942

Portrait of self 2008

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LIFEWORKS

About

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ATLAS

Index

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AUTUMN 2008
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EDVARD MUNCH 1942

Sickness, insanity and death were the angels that surrounded my cradle and they have followed me throughout my life.
Edvard Munch (1863-1944), Symbolist painter and printmaker

Edvard Munch was the second of five children born to Christian and Laura Cathrine Munch. Munch's mother died of tuberculosis in 1868 and his favorite sister, Johanne Sophie, also died from the disease in 1877. After his mother's death, Christian raised the children in an atmosphere of religious fear, frequently instructing them that if they sinned in any way, they would go to hell without hope of pardon. Munch's younger sister was diagnosed with mental illness at a very young age. Munch himself was also often quite ill. The only one of the five siblings to marry, his brother Andreas, died a few months after the wedding. His father died at an early age as well (1889).

Throughout his life, Munch used his painting to come to terms with the death and illness which filled his childhood. The Scream (1893), his best known painting, is characteristic of his early work. In 1908, suffering from acute anxiety, he received psychiatric treatment and electroshock therapy at the clinic of Dr. Daniel Jacobson. The process dramatically altered Munch and his work. Returning to Norway after his treatment, he began to explore natures themes and his paintings were also less pessimistic and more colorful.

Self-portrait between the clock and the bed. Edvard Munch. 1940-42. Munch Museum, Oslo.

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