The 5 most important WORKS of Edvard MUNCH

Edvard Munch (1863-1944) is a Norwegian painter and printmaker who adopted the sensitivity of symbolism, being also one of the most recognized and influential figures of the new generation of European expressionist painters, although it cannot be tagged within a specific movement. Munch was a very prolific artist, showing in his works his obsession with death, chronic illness, sexuality and religion.

Obsessions that he captured through intense colors, a tendency to abstraction and a dark, distressing and melancholic theme. Although formed during the heyday of Art Nouveau, Munch abandoned everything decorative and organic to show human psychology from a disturbing point of view. In this lesson from unPROFESOR.com we offer you a selection of the most important works by Edvard Munch so that you know the stylistic keys of this painter.

Index

1. The Sick Girl (1885-1907), one of Munch's most important works
2. Night on St. Cloud (1890)
3. The Scream (1893)
4. Madonna (1894-1895) by Edvard Munch
5. Spring Plowing (1918)

Munch created an original and unique language thanks to his indefinable style that cannot be incorporated into any specific style. Thus, he freely dialogued with the post-impressionism, symbolism, art Nouveau and the expressionism. Among his most outstanding works is The sick girl.

The sick girl is one of the Munch's early works. A work dedicated to his sister who died of tuberculosis and in which he returns anxiety and sadness that generated that early loss. The painting shows us the girl sitting on the bed with a gesture of resignation and her mother with a sad and desolate pose, although her mother had died years before, also from tuberculosis.

The brushstrokes are rough and the tones are melancholic and dark, highlighting the figure of the girl with golden and light tones. It is located in the Tate Gallery in London.

“I'm not going to paint any more interiors with men reading and women weaving. I am going to paint the lives of people who breathe, feel, suffer and love ”.

This box is a tribute to the artist's father passed away the previous year. A work that the artist painted shortly after his arrival in Paris, revealing to us the influence of the post-impressionists Van gogh Y Toulouse-Lautrec. Here, Munch presents us with a dark room bathed in twilight light, being a space occupied only by stillness and shadows.

People do not appear in the work as in the painting tribute to his sister, revealing the cold relationship that existed with his father and Munch transmitting the abandonment he felt. The painting is in the National Gallery in Oslo.

This is the Munch artwork most iconic and recognizable, the most famous of his entire artistic career and about whose creation he wrote:

“He was walking with two friends on the road, then the sun went down. Suddenly the sky turned a bloody red, and I felt a shudder of sadness. An agonizing pain oppressed my chest. I stopped, leaned against the fence, incredibly tired - tongues of fire and blood spread over the blue-black fjord and over the city. My friends kept walking, while I stayed behind, trembling in terror and I felt the immense, infinite cry of nature ”.

This work is innovative and in it you can find aesthetic elements of Fauvism, Expressionism Y the surrealism. The scene was suggested by a walk along a road overlooking the city of Oslo at the entrance or exit of the psychiatric hospital where his sister was admitted. Munch painted two versions and it is in the Munch Museum in Oslo.

This work by Munch is contemporary with The Scream, although in this Madonna softer brush strokes and softer colors are used. In this box munch represents the Virgin Mary in an irreverent and realistic way, painting her with a red halo of passion on her head instead of the usual white or gold ring.

Although his father was very religious, Munch debated all his life about what his true spirituality and religiosity was. Changing the title to the work of Loving Woman or Woman Loving Madonna was quite a provocation. Munch made at least five versions of this painting and in it too he captured the relationship between love and pain. The painting is located in the National Galllery in Oslo.

"Just as Leonardo da Vinci studied human anatomy and dissected bodies, I try to dissect souls."

After his stay in the hospital, Munch abandoned his life of parties and alcohol and rededicated himself to art, drawing inspiration from the countryside of his native land. Thus, his paintings were filled with animals and landscapes of Norway, taking a new direction in which Munch celebrates life and work rather than anxiety, fear, and pain.

In these works, Munch draws inspiration from Franz marc, a young expressionist who had taken Munch as a reference. Marc used to paint animals in his natural environment. In those years, Munch creates symbolist and expressionist works in which he contrasts the innocence of his themes with the brushstroke and the most mature palette of a painter with many years of mastery. The painting is in the Munch Museum in Oslo.

If you want to read more articles similar to Edvard Munch: Most Important Works, we recommend that you enter our category of Story.

• Dutching, Hajo (2017). Edvard Munch. Könemann
• Lucas, Antonio (2015). Munch is more than just The Scream.
• Serrano Ferrández, Elena. (2015) Edvard Munch: the narrative of suffering. AMF Journal of the Society for Family and Community Medicine.