Edvard Munch: 3 interesting facts

Edvard Munch ( MUUNK,Norwegian: [ˈɛ̀dvɑɖ ˈmʊŋk] (listen); 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter. His best known work, The Scream, has become one of the iconic images of world art.

His childhood was overshadowed by illness, bereavement and the panic of inheriting a mental condition that ran in the family. Studying at the Royal School of Art and Design in Kristiania (today’s Oslo), Munch began to alive a bohemian life below the have emotional impact of the radical Hans Jæger, who urged him to paint his own emotional and psychological state (‘soul painting’). From this emerged his distinctive style.

Travel brought further influences and outlets. In Paris, he scholarly much from Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, especially their use of colour. In Berlin, he met the Swedish dramatist August Strindberg, whom he painted, as he embarked on his major canon The Frieze of Life, depicting a series of deeply-felt themes such as love, anxiety, jealousy and betrayal, steeped in atmosphere.

The Scream was conceived in Kristiania. According to Munch, he was out walking at sunset, when he ‘heard the enormous, infinite scream of nature’. The painting’s agonised aim is widely identified once the angst of the liberal person. Between 1893 and 1910, he made two painted versions and two in pastels, as capably as a number of prints. One of the pastels would eventually command the fourth highest nominal price paid for a painting at auction.

As his fame and great quantity grew, his emotional come clean remained insecure. He briefly considered marriage, but could not commit himself. A psychiatry in 1908 motivated him to give up heavy drinking, and he was cheered by his increasing recognition by the people of Kristiania and exposure to air in the city’s museums. His future years were spent involved in friendship and privacy. Although his works were banned in Nazi Germany, most of them survived World War II, securing him a legacy.