Hi Subscriber,
Today's edition is a quick read about the evolution of Edvard Munch's
style in painting.
Of course his most famous work is easily recognizable, but it was fun
to see how his inspiration started and how the work changed as he grew
more into adulthood.
Enjoy today's selection,
BoldBrush Studio Team
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Edvard Munch, The Scream, oil, tempera, pastel and crayon on cardboard,
1893
Edvard Munch, The Scream, oil, tempera, pastel and crayon on cardboard,
1893
The Evolution of Edvard Munch
Edvard Munch, the Norwegian artist responsible for one of the 19th
century's most famous paintings, The Scream, had an unusual artistic
trajectory. Born in 1863, he had a pensive childhood overshadowed by
poverty and the death of his mother. He discovered art as a teenager,
and at the age of 18 enrolled in the Royal School of Art and Design in
Oslo (then named Kristiania). One of his teachers there was Christian
Krohg, an influential realist artist who had been involved with the
Skagen painters in Denmark and the Impressionists in Paris. During his
student years Munch experimented with all of the popular styles going
around, including Naturalism and Impressionism, but remained
dissatisfied.
Edvard Munch, Self-Portrait, 1882
Edvard Munch, Self-Portrait, 1882
During this period he came under the influence of Nihilism, which lead
him down a path of inner turmoil and self-examination and brought him
to an interest in symbolism, the movement of the post-impressionists
towards content over form. He received a great deal of criticism for
this first work, although Krogh championed his ability as a painter.
However, in the first odd twist of his career, his one-man show of this
experimental work led to the receipt of a two-year scholarship to study
with famed (and highly traditional) Parisian Leon Bonnat. He arrived in
Paris in 1889 when the great Exposition Universelle was going on, where
he was exposed to the work of Gaugin, van Gogh, and Toulouse-Lautrec,
who all had a tremendous influence on the shift in his work toward
postmodernism. He spent less than a year in Paris, as his father died
and he had to return home to Norway; but this time in Paris was a key
part of his transformation into the Munch we know today. He did his
first version of the famous The Scream in 1893, by which time he had
settled into his new aesthetic. (Throughout his life, Munch would do
the same image over and over, often with just slight changes and
adjustments. He did four different versions of The Scream, two in
pastel and two in oils.)
During this time Munch was still going through bouts of depressive
melancholy and existential angst, as can be seen in his work, but
through the 1890s his work began to receive considerable attention and,
despite the fact that the majority of the crowds came to see his work
because it was "violent and brutal", it began to sell as well. Munch's
life as looking up. He gained patrons and bought a summer home in
Norway, which remained his favorite inspiration throughout his life. In
1903 he held an exhibit in Paris, where it is suggested the Fauvists
got the inspiration for their bold style. (He was indeed friends with
many of them.) In another career twist, although his unusual work was
receiving considerable recognition, Munch's depressive tendencies,
compounded by an increasing alcoholism, finally caught up with him and
in 1908 he checked himself into a clinic for therapy.
This time transformed both his emotional state and his artwork; after
the conclusion of his treatment, his work became brighter, with warmer
subject matter, focusing on his friends, his horse, and his beloved
Norwegian countryside. His work from this period, though it retains his
bold style, feels like it could be from a different artist altogether,
its emotional range is so much at odds with his earlier work.
Particularly interesting is the way he shifts from capturing the dark
side of nature in his early work (he has many works, including The
Scream, which were inspired by the Norwegian sunsets but interpret it
not as a thing of beauty but as a thing of despair) to celebrating the
beauty and color of nature (consider his Varlandscap below). Although
his final years were overshadowed by the rise of Nazism and the
occupation of Norway (Hitler had him on the list of 'degenerate
artists'), the majority of his work did survive World War II and gives
us the record of a creative personality who was adept at capturing his
emotions in the entire range, from despair to delight.
Edvard Munch, Morning, oil on canvas, 1884
Edvard Munch, Morning, oil on canvas, 1884
Edvard Munch, Evening, oil on canvas. 1888
Edvard Munch, Evening, oil on canvas. 1888
Edvard Munch, Summer Night, Inger on the beach, oil on canvas, 1889
Edvard Munch, Summer Night, Inger on the beach, oil on canvas, 1889
Edvard Munch, Night in Saint-Cloud, oil on canvas, 1890
Edvard Munch, Night in Saint-Cloud, oil on canvas, 1890
Edvard Munch, Melancholy, oil on canvas, 1892
Edvard Munch, Melancholy, oil on canvas, 1892
Edvard Munch, Self-Portrait with Cigarette, oil on canvas, 1895
Edvard Munch, Self-Portrait with Cigarette, oil on canvas, 1895
Edvard Munch, Train Smoke, oil on canvas, 1900
Edvard Munch, Train Smoke, oil on canvas, 1900
Edvard Munch, Summer Night by the Beach, 1902
Edvard Munch, Summer Night by the Beach, 1902
Edvard Munch, The Sick Child, oil on canvas, 1907
Edvard Munch, The Sick Child, oil on canvas, 1907
Edvard Munch, Varlandskap (Spring Landscape), oil on canvas, c. 1923
Edvard Munch, Varlandskap (Spring Landscape), oil on canvas, c. 1923
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