Died: 29 July 1890, Auvers-sur-Oise, France

Periods: Post-Impressionism, Pointillism, Neo-Impressionism

Siblings: Theo van Gogh, Elisabeth Huberta Du Quesne-Van Gogh, Cor van Gogh, Wil van Gogh, more

 | 12 December 1863
Ådalsbruk, Løten, Sweden–Norway

Died

 | 23 January 1944(aged 80)
Oslo, Norway

Nationality

 | Norwegian

Known for

 | Painting and graphic artist

Notable work

 | The ScreamMadonnaThe Sick Child

Movement

 | Expressionism, Symbolism






His childhood was overshadowed by illness, bereavement and the dread of inheriting a mental condition that ran in the family. Studying at the Royal School of Art and Designin Kristiania (today's Oslo), Munch began to live a bohemian life under the influence of the nihilist Hans Jæger, who urged him to paint his own emotional and psychological state ('soul painting'); from this emerged his distinctive style.

Travel brought new influences and outlets. In Paris, he learned much from Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, especially their use of color. In Berlin, he met the Swedish dramatist August Strindberg, whom he painted, as he embarked on a major series of paintings he would later call The Frieze of Life, depicting a series of deeply-felt themes such as love, anxiety, jealousy and betrayal, steeped in atmosphere.

The Scream was conceived in Kristiania. According to Munch, he was out walking at sunset, when he 'heard the enormous, infinite scream of nature'. The painting's agonized face is widely identified with the angst of the modern person. Between 1893 and 1910, he made two painted versions and two in pastels, as well as a number of prints. One of the pastels would eventually command the fourth highest nominal price paid for a painting at auction.

Because even though Lichtenstein took his inspiration for Sunrise directly from one of the landscapes he had seen in a comic book, in choosing this particular subject, he was joining a pantheon of artists who recognized the power of this particular motif to stir the emotions.