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Lot Essay
This work is recorded in the archives of the Munch Museet, Oslo.
The present work is being offered for sale pursuant to an agreement between the consignor and the heirs of Prof. Dr. Curt Glaser. This resolves any dispute over ownership of the work and title will pass to the buyer.
Painted circa 1925, the present work relates to one of Munch's most popular motifs, The Girls on the Bridge (Pikene på broen), which he first painted in 1901. Throughout his career, Munch explored this theme multiple times, painting nine oil variations between 1901 and 1905 (Woll, nos. 483, 484, 539 [fig. 1], 540, 541, 566, 567, 604, 639), one in 1927 (Woll, no. 1632) and two more between 1933-1940 (Woll, nos. 1715 and 1721).
Ragna Stang has written on the Girls on the Bridge subject: “Munch makes use of a handrail to accentuate the perspective—our eyes instinctively follow it in towards the landscape in the background, even though we are unable to make out precisely where the railing ends and the road, which leads past the large sleeping house into the small town beyond, actually begins” (Edvard Munch, The Man and His Art, New York, 1977, pp. 170 and 172).
Prof. Dr. Curt Glaser (1879-1943), the first owner of this work, was a renowned art historian and a prominent figure in the artistic and cultural milieu of Berlin in the early decades of the 20th century. Appointed Director of the State Art Library in 1924, he was dismissed by the Nazi government in 1933, and forced to flee the country, auctioning most of his art to finance his emigration. He left Berlin for Switzerland via Paris in June 1933, before finally settling in the United States with his second wife Maria (née Milch) in 1941.
The present work is being offered for sale pursuant to an agreement between the consignor and the heirs of Prof. Dr. Curt Glaser. This resolves any dispute over ownership of the work and title will pass to the buyer.
Painted circa 1925, the present work relates to one of Munch's most popular motifs, The Girls on the Bridge (Pikene på broen), which he first painted in 1901. Throughout his career, Munch explored this theme multiple times, painting nine oil variations between 1901 and 1905 (Woll, nos. 483, 484, 539 [fig. 1], 540, 541, 566, 567, 604, 639), one in 1927 (Woll, no. 1632) and two more between 1933-1940 (Woll, nos. 1715 and 1721).
Ragna Stang has written on the Girls on the Bridge subject: “Munch makes use of a handrail to accentuate the perspective—our eyes instinctively follow it in towards the landscape in the background, even though we are unable to make out precisely where the railing ends and the road, which leads past the large sleeping house into the small town beyond, actually begins” (Edvard Munch, The Man and His Art, New York, 1977, pp. 170 and 172).
Prof. Dr. Curt Glaser (1879-1943), the first owner of this work, was a renowned art historian and a prominent figure in the artistic and cultural milieu of Berlin in the early decades of the 20th century. Appointed Director of the State Art Library in 1924, he was dismissed by the Nazi government in 1933, and forced to flee the country, auctioning most of his art to finance his emigration. He left Berlin for Switzerland via Paris in June 1933, before finally settling in the United States with his second wife Maria (née Milch) in 1941.