edvard Munch 1863-1944

Through his Paintings, obsessed over his own Mortality

When Norwegian artist Edvard Munch wrote of his childhood that “disease and insanity were the black angels on guard at my cradle,” little could he have predicted that he would live well into his 80s, surviving not only war and global health pandemics, but also his own melancholy. After his mother’s death at the hands of tuberculosis in his early childhood, Munch grew up surrounded by his siblings and father, from whom Munch believed he had inherited what he called the “seed of madness.” Munch’s father, Christian, was pious to the point of obsession, even waking his son during the night to watch the boy’s sister, Sophie, die.

The inevitability of death loomed over Munch for the rest of his life, and after moving to Paris, he was soon forced back home after his father’s death left the remaining family in financial ruin.

Returning to Paris and Berlin, Munch’s increased drinking was taking its toll on the artist; his fatalism continued to overshadow his life and he developed severe anxiety. In 1893 he created the first iteration of

The Scream after suffering a panic attack in Nice, later explaining that he “sensed a scream passing through nature; it seemed to me that I heard the scream. I painted this picture, painted the clouds as actual blood. The colour shrieked”.

In the years that followed, Munch’s mental health continued to deteriorate, exacerbated by the booze. After a breakdown in 1908, he was hospitalised and underwent eight months of ‘electrification’.

Upon being discharged, he returned to Norway to lead a solitary life. Newly reinvigorated, he avoided themes of despair and illness in his artwork – though his could never forget his own mortality, and painted many macabre self-portraits.