Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch was a Norwegian Symbolism and Expressionist painter who lived from 1863 to 1944 known for his dark, emotional pieces. He had a hard upbringing filled with tragedies. As a child, Munch was often ill during the cold winter months. During his illness, he would stay home from school and took up drawing as a way to help pass the time. His family was poor and moved quite a lot, and his father was overbearing and religious.

Early on, Munch’s mother, favorite sister, and only brother died when he was young, and another sister of his was mentally ill.  All of this added to Munch’s overall dark state of mind that he poured into his works. Munch began his career studying engineering, where he learned the use of perspective. When he quit that to study art, his father was very disappointed, even destroying one of his paintings, but Munch moved to Paris, nonetheless. In Paris, he worked to develop his style.  He experimented with impressionism, realism, and pointillism techniques.

Beginning in the 1890s, Munch used colors as a means to show intense mood or feeling. He was deeply inspired by the symbolism in the colors used in the works of Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin. Rather than trying to depict color and light found in the outside world like the Impressionists were doing, he wanted to use colors to highlight his internal moods and feelings. 

In Berlin, he further developed his style, and most notably, started using colors to express emotion. During these years, Munch created a series of paintings he called the Frieze of Life. Each piece was a different emotion, and included works such as “Despair,” “Anxiety,” and his most successful piece, “The Scream”. In 1902, this series was displayed at the 1902 Berlin exhibition and was an immediate success.

Edvard Munch’s mental state was questionable.  Aided by excessive drinking and public fighting, he had a mental breakdown; he became paranoid and suffered hallucinations. Though he recovered from this, the style of his art changed. His pieces were colorful and depicted lighter subject matter. Munch spent the last two decades of his life in isolation, dying in 1944 at 80 years old. He painted right up until his death. 

Munch’s use of color and his brushstroke techniques, and the personal nature of his early work make his art so unique. His style became a great influence on the German Expressionism movement of the early twentieth century.

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