Edvard Munch: 10 works

'In 1890 Edvard Munch stayed in Saint-Cloud outside Paris. Inspired by the impressionism and the neoimpressionism he painted the river Seine, during the winter through spring, from different angles and at different times of the day.'

'In line with the symbolist art and literature of the period, Munch stresses the union between love and death, and he presents man as a powerless participant in the eternal cycle of life.'

'The lithograph Self-Portrait with Skeleton Arm from 1895 is Munch's first graphical self-portrait.'

'Especially during his early creative years, the time Munch spent in Paris, Berlin, Denmark, and Norway was marked with dramatic experiences that are reflected in his artistic work.'

'A photographic self-portrait of Edvard Munch standing naked in the garden of his summer house in Åsgårdstrand, executed in the summer of 1903, might be seen in connection with one of his famous self-portraits painted the same year. Self-Portrait in Hell clearly reveals how Munch at the time perceived his position as a man and an artist: a private hell.'

'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.'

'In the painting "Shore with Red House" from 1904 Munch once again repeats the beach motif from Åsgårdstrand, that played an important part in the picture series "Frieze of Life" from the 1890's. Munch has himself said that "walking through Aasgaardstrand is like strolling through my pictures -- I really feel like painting when I'm in Aasgaardstrand...".'

'Munch laid the lame on Tulla Larsen and the engagement was broken off. The episode developed into a trauma which was to haunt Munch for many years, and which he worked on in several paintings, such as The Death of Marat I and The Death of Marat II, also called The Murderess.'

'The Scientists /Alma Mater is one of the monumental paintings that Edvard Munch painted for one of the long walls in the Festival Hall of Oslo University. He painted two different versions of the motif, but couldn't quite make up his mind as to which was better -- which is why both versions were displayed in the Hall during Munch's lifetime.'

'Taken by Munch holding the camera in his outstretched hand, much in the same manner people today will do self-portraits with mobile phones.'