The Brooch. Eva Mudocci

After 1902 Munch’s lithographs were mainly drawn on paper. There were, however, some exceptions, such as this portrait of Eva Mudocci from 1903, executed directly on stone using a variety of lithographic techniques - with lithographic crayon, tusche, and scraping tools. Eva Mudocci was a famous British violinist who, together with the pianist Bella Edwards, had concert tours throughout Europe, including Norway. Edward Munch met her in Paris in 1903. The two of them became close friends. Initially the relationship was of an erotic nature, but in time became more like a brother-and-sister relationship. From 1902 to 1908 she was one of Munch’s closest confidantes. Munch himself called the lithograph Madonna and Madonna with Brooch, connecting it to the Madonna motif from the 1890s, but the Madonna- motif’s clearly sexual contents t have been reduced in this portrait to undertones in a beautiful and soulful face. Mudocci became an ideal figure and a muse for the artist, and this portrait, with its lyrical atmosphere and musical rhythms is undoubtedly one of the finest of Munch’s many female portraits. The portrait is nowadays best known as The.Brooch. Acting here as an eye-catcher in the composition, the brooch was a gift from the Norwegian art historian Jens Thiis in 1901.