.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The present work is registered with the Munch Museum, Oslo. We are grateful to Magne Bruteig, Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Munch Museum for his assistance in cataloguing this drawing.
The present work, with the artist's own color notations at the upper right of the sheet, relates to Munch's large-scale canvas Døoden og Barnet (Death and the Child) (Woll, no. 446; Munch-Museet, fig. 1). The inscription at the lower right of the recto is by Berta Folkedal who acquired the drawing from Munch's sister, Inger. On the verso of the sheet is a forest study which bears relation to a number of works from the 1890s such as Aske (Ashes) (Woll, no. 378) or Sommernatt. Stemmen (Summer night. The Voice) (Woll, no. 394).
For Munch art had a cathartic significance. Much of his work before 1900--arguably all his art leading up to his 'crisis' of 1908--had the recurring character of exorcism. The roots of this lay in part in his childhood where the profound impact of sickness, insanity and death loomed large. The early deaths of his mother and beloved elder sister, the mental illness of another sister and his own severe tubercular condition, together with the constricted religious atmosphere imposed by his rigid father, laid the foundations of his desire to expunge demons through his art. Writing around 1900, Munch lamented, "It is an unhappy event when an earth mother meets someone such as me, who finds the earth too miserable to breed children: [I am] the last generation of a dying race. I have been given a unique role to play on this earth: the unique role given to me by a life filled with sickness, ill-starred circumstances and my profession as an artist. It is a life that contains nothing even resembling happiness, and moreover does not even desire happiness" (quoted in R. Heller, Munch, His Life and Work, London, 1984, p. 166).
The present work, with the artist's own color notations at the upper right of the sheet, relates to Munch's large-scale canvas Døoden og Barnet (Death and the Child) (Woll, no. 446; Munch-Museet, fig. 1). The inscription at the lower right of the recto is by Berta Folkedal who acquired the drawing from Munch's sister, Inger. On the verso of the sheet is a forest study which bears relation to a number of works from the 1890s such as Aske (Ashes) (Woll, no. 378) or Sommernatt. Stemmen (Summer night. The Voice) (Woll, no. 394).
For Munch art had a cathartic significance. Much of his work before 1900--arguably all his art leading up to his 'crisis' of 1908--had the recurring character of exorcism. The roots of this lay in part in his childhood where the profound impact of sickness, insanity and death loomed large. The early deaths of his mother and beloved elder sister, the mental illness of another sister and his own severe tubercular condition, together with the constricted religious atmosphere imposed by his rigid father, laid the foundations of his desire to expunge demons through his art. Writing around 1900, Munch lamented, "It is an unhappy event when an earth mother meets someone such as me, who finds the earth too miserable to breed children: [I am] the last generation of a dying race. I have been given a unique role to play on this earth: the unique role given to me by a life filled with sickness, ill-starred circumstances and my profession as an artist. It is a life that contains nothing even resembling happiness, and moreover does not even desire happiness" (quoted in R. Heller, Munch, His Life and Work, London, 1984, p. 166).