The Norwegian painter Munch was one of the best known exponents of the Expressionist style. He is famous for his painting The Scream, which is the most expensive picture ever to be sold at auction, even more so than works by Van Gogh. The premature death of his mother and sister from tuberculosis affected his character, and he rebelled against his strictly religious father.

This work dates from the artist’s earliest period, although his need to express people’s feelings is already apparent: melancholy, fear, anxiety, loneliness, love and jealousy are all dealt with in his work.

His sister Laura sat for this portrait, painted during their holidays in the fjords.

During the Second World War, Munch had problems with the Nazis, who did not properly appreciate his works, and they withdrew many of his pictures from German museums because they considered him to be mad. According to Munch, "landscape is not just everything that is visible to the eye, it also includes all the inner visions of the soul".


(c) (R) 2013, MUSMon com S.L.
Text (a) Catalina Serrano Romero

Photo: Portrait of Edvard Munch, 1921 (a) Author:Anders Beer Wilse. Source: Wikipedia (This photo from the collection of the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History by Anders Beer Wilse is in the public domain.)