Edvard Munch Emotional Setting

Edvard Munch was a symbolist painter and printmaker. He was a important forerunner of expressionistic art.

. His mother died of tuberculosis when he was five. At fourteen, he watched his fifteen-year-old sister Sophie succumb to the same disease. When, at twenty-two, he acquired the technical means to portray it, her death became an obsession to which he returned again and again: the wan face in profile against the pillow, the despairing mother at the bedside, the muted light, the tousled hair, the useless glass of water.

" Munch was chiefly concerned with his own existential drama: 'My art', he declared, 'is rooted in a single reflection: why am I not as others are? "Munch was

"We want more than a mere photograph of nature. We do not want to paint pretty pictures to be hung on drawing-room walls. We want to create, or at least lay the foundations of, an art that gives something to humanity. An art that arrests and engages. An art created of one's innermost heart." (E.M.)

1863 – Born in Norway and was often ill as a child, had to deal with a lot of illness and grief in his family. Considered one of his country’s greatest artists. Was a painter, lithographer, etcher and wood engraver. Played a vital role in the development of the Expressionism movement. His works were considered “objectionable” and provoked outrage during the late 1800’s but he was a major influence on other artists and he later gained fame and respect of art critics. His art is reflective of his own unhappy life as well as the basic fears and anxieties of mankind.