Edvard Munch, melancholy, 1896 by Atelier Liesjes

About "Edvard Munch, melancholy, 1896"

by Atelier Liesjes

About the artwork

Edvard Munch (Løten (Hedmark), 12 December 1863 - Ekely near Oslo, 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter. He was the great foreman of expressionism. Initially, he was influenced by Impressionism and Symbolism. His works were mainly post-impressionist, but also contributed a lot to expressionism. Munch mainly focused on depicting human emotions, fears and uncertainties. The shrill colours and expressive lines he used, as well as the choice of his subjects, had a great influence on the development of Expressionism. Munch reconciled in his works contradictions such as life and death, the vertical and horizontal line and movement and standstill.
The practice of free love by the bohemians of Christiania, advocated by Jaeger as suited to an anarchist society, led to a good deal of jealousy. Among those who aroused it was Oda Krohg (wife of the painter Christian Krohg), who became, to borrow Tom Lehrer's phraseology, the hypotenuse of a triangle involving her husband and Jappe Nilssen, a young journalist who was a friend of Munch. His jealousy inspired this symbolic composition which Munch painted in several versions under various titles: Jealousy, and Melancholy.

Nilssen sits miserable among the rocks on the shore at Asgardstrand, in the profile position of contemplation. In the distance the figures of a man and a woman, Christian and Oda Krohg, are about to embark on a boat, bound for an island where they will make love. Nilssen is painted in the manner of the Pont-Aven sch