Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch was born in Løten, Norway, in 1863, but grew up in Oslo, where his family moved in 1864. He is one of the leading exponents of Expressionism and one of the most famous artists of the 20th century. His works take shape from the externalization of his feelings. Depressions, fears, bereavements and his own admission to a clinic lead him to have a macabre vision of the world, which he expresses in his paintings through an anguished style. Encouraged by his father, he undertook engineering studies, thanks to which he learned perspective. However, he was not as fascinated by engineering as he was by art, so he left his current studies and enrolled at the School of Drawing in Oslo, where he stayed for a year, before moving to the School of Arts and Crafts in 1881. In 1883 he took part in a group exhibition of artists at the Oslo Decorative Arts Fair. Through this experience he got to know the Norwegian artistic environment and the naturalist avant-garde. In 1885 he moved to Paris after winning a scholarship. Here he came into contact with the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist styles and was particularly interested in Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, whose works he had the opportunity to observe. In the 1990s he moved to Berlin and produced a series of works on the themes of love, anxiety and death. His artistic production has brought to us over 1000 works and more than 4000 drawings. In 1894, he also began to make prints from his paintings in order to reach a wider audience. In 1904 he became a member of the Berlin Secession. In 1936 he received the Légion d'Honneur in France and exhibited in London. Later he also exhibited in the United States.  He died in Oslo in January 1944 of violent pneumonia. He bequeathed all his works to the city of Oslo, which founded a museum dedicated to him in 1963.