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A New Acquisition
Vincent and Edvard: a Dutchman and a Norwegian. The two artists never met, yet both produced powerful and intense works of art in the same period. Moreover, they went to extremes in doing so.
This portrait of the physicist Felix Auerbach is the first painting by Edvard Munch to enter the Van Gogh Museum’s collection. Like Vincent, Edvard used colour as a means of making expressive, personal portraits.
Edvard painted this portrait in a single session, in Felix’s home. Both the artist and the sitter were delighted with the result. The intense red background makes the figure of Felix stand out powerfully. Edvard depicted him as a self-assured man of the world.
‘I have a model at last’, Vincent sighed when he painted this infantry soldier in June 1888. Vincent was interested primarily in portraying the expressiveness of his face. He therefore emphasized the Zouave’s ‘eye of a tiger’ and used harsh contrasting colours, such as red and green.
During his short life, Van Gogh did not allow his flame to go out. Fire and embers were his brushes during the few years of his life, whilst he burned out for his art. I had thought and desired, like he, not to allow my flame to become extinguished and with burning brush to paint until the end.
Edvard Munch, 28 October 1933
Vincent and Edvard had different backgrounds and skills. In the autumn of 1880, however, they had a common aim: to become artists. Edvard enrolled at the Royal School of Art and Design in Kristiania (now Oslo); Vincent at the Royal Academy for Fine Arts in Antwerp.
Edvard’s ticket for the World Exhibition in Antwerp, 1885
Vincent at the age of nineteen
After practising for several years, Edvard and Vincent each embarked on an ambitious figural painting in the mid-1880s. Vincent wanted to be an artist of rural life and chose a peasant family eating their meal.
Edvard’s subject was a maid who had just woken up. He hoped to exhibit his canvas and succeeded in doing so.
The Potato Eaters and Morning are milestones in which each of the two artists approached a traditional subject in his own way. Both works were, however, greeted by incomprehension. To pursue their art further, the painters subsequently moved to Paris.
Edvard Munch, Morning, 1884, KODE Art Museums of Bergen, Rasmus Meyer Collection
Edvard created Morning, his first great work, in 1884. He was particularly fascinated by the colour effects of the morning light. To the art critics, however, the painting’s honesty was an insult: the young woman had dirty feet!
The bed is whitish, and there are white sheets, a white nightgown, a bedside table draped in white, white curtains, and a blue wall. It’s the effects of the colour. I’m not sure whether I’ll be able to do this because it’s very difficult, but I’m hoping for the best.
Edvard to his fellow artist Olav Paulsen, 22 September 1884
Sketches and preparatory drawings for The Potato Eaters
He tried to visualise the harsh life of these poor farmers by means of colour and facial expression.
The dark tones and almost caricature-like heads were not, however, well received. Van Gogh’s friend, the painter Anthon van Rappard, even said that one of the women had a dice for a nose.
The subject here is a grey interior, lit by a small lamp. I had finished all the heads but I quickly repainted them without mercy, and the colour they’re painted now is something like the colour of a really dusty potato, unpeeled of course.
Vincent to his brother Theo, 2 May 1885
Paris in the nineteenth century was the world’s leading cultural centre. Artists from many different countries were drawn to the vibrant French capital. Celebrated painters offered lessons in their studios, the annual Salon was packed with the latest art, and ‘alternative’ exhibitions were held in cafés and private galleries.
‘Le Grand Louvre’ was already world famous and was the place Edvard and Vincent most looked forward to seeing. Munch moved to Paris in 1885 and Van Gogh in 1886, although Edvard had already moved on by that time.
View of the Louvre, c. 1900
“Hooray, vive la France! – Imagine how we will wear out the floor at the Louvre; the French government will have to get it repainted!”
Edvard to his fellow artist Olav Paulsen, 14 December 1884
Letter from Vincent to Theo on the day he arrived – unannounced – in Paris
“Will be in the Louvre from noon, or earlier if you prefer. R.S.V.P. to let me know what time you can be in the Salle Carrée.”
Vincent to his brother Theo, 28 February 1886
Vincent and Edvard lived in the same neighbourhood in Paris (Montmartre) and also moved in the same artistic circles.
Although they almost certainly never met, there was a direct link between the two – the Norwegian artist Hans Heyerdahl. Vincent’s brother Theo was Heyderdahl’s dealer, so it is entirely possible that the Norwegian introduced him to the young Edvard.
As far as success goes, it may be the same for him as Heyerdahl, appreciated by some, but not understood by the general public.
Theo compared his brother Vincent to Heyerdahl in a letter to his sister Lies, 13 October 1885
Vincent van Gogh Starry Night over the Rhone, 1888, Musée d’Orsay, Paris
Vincent had already left Paris by the time Edvard returned to the French capital in 1889 and 1890.
Munch did have the opportunity, however, to see Van Gogh’s work: Starry Night over the Rhone and Sunflowers were among the paintings on show at the annual ‘Salon des Indépendants’.
Both these paintings of starlit skies have at their core the spiritual force of nature. Like Vincent, Edvard found hope and consolation in the starry sky.
9 Rue Victor Massé: the nightclub Le Chat Noir was located opposite
Edvard wrote a letter to his aunt on 5 May 1885 in which he describes a visit to the annual Salon and to the Louvre. He also gave her his temporary address: ‘Rue de Lavalle, 32bis’.
The street, now called Rue Victor Massé, is in the lower part of Montmartre, a district popular with artists and Bohemians. Vincent lived with his brother Theo at number 25 in the same street from March to June 1886.
During their respective periods in Paris, Edvard and Vincent each discovered Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, the key movements in modern French art at the time.
Both men also explored novelties like photography and Japanese prints, which had a significant influence on their style and choice of subject.
It took Vincent a while to start experimenting with impressionist techniques. He had an opportunity to see Claude Monet’s landscapes in Theo’s gallery, where they made a deep impression on him. He applied the same loose touch and light colours in Montmartre: Behind the Moulin de la Galette.
Edvard Munch, Spring Day on Karl Johan Street, 1890, KODE Art Museums of Bergen
Edvard’s Spring Day on Karl Johan Street forms a perfect match with the street scenes of the Impressionists. He painted his modern Oslo townscape with small touches of bright colour, just as the Pointillists did.
The Pointillist paintings of Georges Seurat and Paul Signac were the very latest thing in 1886. They consisted of dots of pure, contrasting colours placed next to each other.
Rather than dots, Vincent preferred to use short, separate loose brushstrokes, which were more in keeping with his much-admired père Pissarro.
As for stippling [...] I find that a real discovery, but it can already be foreseen that this technique won’t become a universal dogma any more than another.
Vincent to Theo from Arles, c. 26 August 1888
Both Vincent and Edvard viewed Edouard Manet as the most important exponent of the new painting. They especially admired his portraits.
Manet’s influence can be detected in Edvard’s portrait of Karl Jensen-Hjell – a true bohemian, whom he painted with broad, loose brushstrokes. The portrait was immediately described as ‘Impressionism taken to the extreme’.
Like Edvard, Vincent focused in Paris on modern portraits. In this example, he painted his girlfriend Agostina Segatori against a flat, yellow plane. The flatness, along with the emphasised outlines, came from Japanese prints. The example shown here is one that Vincent owned himself.
The artist Paul Gauguin was an important example for both Vincent and Edvard. He inspired them to translate their personal experiences into bold, colourful paintings.
Gauguin simplified his subjects. Capturing them in large planes of colour, he reduced shapes to their essence and outlined them. His works often have a symbolic or suggestive charge.
Edvard Munch, Fertility, 1899–1900, Canica Art Collection, Oslo
This is not simply a farmer and his wife picking cherries: the couple symbolises fertility and the continuity of life. The woman seems to be pregnant. The forms are bold and simplified, the colours intense, like those we find in Gauguin.
Both Vincent and Edvard had big plans for their most important works, which they wanted to show as a coherent ensemble, as a series. This, they felt, would add to the significance of their paintings.
Vincent began to set up his Yellow House in Arles in 1888. He dreamed of creating a ‘Studio of the South’ there – a place where the art of the future would take shape; where modern artists could find a home; and with his latest paintings decorating the walls.
Vincent began his Décoration to prepare for the arrival of his artist friend Paul Gauguin. It was to be a series of paintings featuring motifs from Arles, beginning with Sunflowers. The series swiftly expanded to include themes of day and night, inside and outside, interior and landscape. The paintings were full of interconnections relating to growth and decay, nature and civilisation.
Vincent hung four paintings of sunflowers in the room intended for Gauguin.
The painting of Lieutenant Milliet was one of several portraits decorating Vincent’s bedroom.
Edvard sought around 1893 to achieve ‘greater unity’ in his paintings, to which end he worked on ‘studies for a series of pictures about life and death’. He called it his Frieze of Life.
The cycle of paintings embraces the different stages of human existence: burgeoning love, separation, fear and death. Edvard painted his own experiences and would continue to work on the series for the rest of his life.
Edvard’s most famous work, The Scream,belonged to the theme of Anxiety and Death in the 'Frieze of Life'.
Edvard wrote of the Anxiety theme: ‘I saw all people behind their masks – Pale corpses who restlessly hurry on.’
This painting was based on Edvard’s memories of his mother’s death. He was five years old at the time.
Edvard and Vincent were not only painters, but also writers of letters and literary texts. They frequently linked the two art forms.
Edvard once described his Frieze of Life, for instance, as ‘a poem about life, love and death’. While Vincent wrote: ‘Books and reality and art are the same kind of thing for me.’
Vincent van Gogh, Sketch of Starry Night over the Rhone in a letter, 2 October 1888, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
Van Gogh wrote more than 800 letters, most of them to his closest confidant, his brother Theo, whom he kept informed about his day-to-day artistic progress. He also shared his views with Theo about life and death, love and humanity.
Vincent’s letters were written between 1872 and 1890. They can all be found at www.vangoghletters.org.
Edvard Munch, Sketch of Despair with literary text, 1892, Munch Museum, Oslo
Around 2,600 letters and 1,500 drafts by Edvard are known. He sent them to friends, relatives and acquaintances. His diaries, notes and poetic texts deal with interesting subjects like his time in Paris, Bohemian life in Kristiania, and his turbulent relationship with Tulla Larsen.
Edvard’s texts were written between 1874 and 1944 – a period four times as long as Vincent’s correspondence. Some of them can be found at www.eMunch.no.
Anyone who wants to produce great art should be poor, preferably a social outsider and ideally a little bit insane.
That’s the image many people have of the artist. It explains why both Vincent and Edvard are often cited as the archetypal artist – an image fuelled in both cases by their love lives and their physical and mental health.
To paint strong feelings solely by working directly from nature – glowing with passion – infernal fire of the soul – is incredibly taxing for the nervous system. Vincent is an example of that (myself partially so).
Edvard Munch, c. 1908
Edvard suffered from poor health throughout his life, while Vincent often failed to take care of himself properly. Both men believed that if you devoted your life to art, you could not lead a ‘normal’ social or love life. Each was unhappy in love and remained unmarried and childless.
“Myself — I feel I’m losing the desire for marriage and children, and at times I’m quite melancholy to be like that at thirty-five when I ought to feel quite differently. And sometimes I blame this damned painting. The love of art makes us lose real love.”
Vincent aan Theo, Parijs, c. 23-25 juli 1887
Edvard Munch, The Dance of Life, 1925, Munch Museum, Oslo
“He explains to her how impossible it is for him to love. He explains that the curse of his inherited sickness, has convinced him not to marry or have children.”
Edvard on himself in The Mad Poet’s Diary.
The difficult course of their lives and their total surrender to art had grave consequences. Vincent committed suicide in 1890 at the age of thirty-seven, while Edvard led a reclusive existence until his death in 1944.
Emile Schuffenecker, Man with Pipe (After Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait), 1892–1900, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
On the evening of 23 December 1888, Vincent quarrelled violently with the painter Paul Gauguin at the house in Arles. Afterwards, in a state of utter confusion, he sliced off part of his left ear.
The crisis was the first in a series of mental breakdowns, accompanied by hallucinations and bouts of anxiety. Vincent was initially treated at the hospital in Arles, but subsequently had himself committed to the psychiatric clinic in Saint-Rémy. He stayed there for a year, but emerged a broken man.
For many days I’ve been absolutely distraught, as in Arles, just as much if not worse, and it’s to be presumed that these crises will recur in the future, it is ABOMINABLE.
Vincent to Theo, 22 August 1889
The hospital in Arles
Vincent remained in the hospital in Arles from 24 December 1888 to 7 January 1889, immediately after cutting off his ear-lobe. He had to be hospitalised again the following February.
Edvard in Dr Jacobson’s clinic, 1908–09
Edvard had himself admitted to Dr Jacobson’s psychiatric clinic in Copenhagen in 1908 following years of depression, anxiety and alcohol abuse.
As a child, Edvard had lost his mother and older sister to tuberculosis, leaving him oversensitive and anxious. He left the clinic after about eight months, his mental health better than it had been for years .
I remember the days before I was admitted to the clinic in Copenhagen, the way I senselessly poured wine and cognac down my throat. A complete intoxication of the senses. A couple of days later I was struck down by an attack which brought me close to death.
Edvard Munch
X-ray of Edvard’s hand
Edvard had a tempestuous personality. Having ended his relationship with Tulla Larsen in 1902, he shot himself in the hand. The missing joints of his left middle finger were a permanent and painful reminder of the incident.
Edvard and Vincent have become legends. Their paintings The Scream and Sunflowers are among our most important cultural icons and hang in museums dedicated to their creators.
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (1973)
Following Vincent’s death in 1890, all his paintings and drawings went to his brother Theo, who himself died six months later from the effects of syphilis. His young widow, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, assumed responsibility for Vincent’s collection.
Jo van Gogh-Bonger and her baby son Vincent Willem, 1890
When Jo died in turn in 1925, her son stepped up to care for his uncle’s work. Vincent Willem campaigned for the creation of the Van Gogh Museum, which duly opened in 1973.
The museum now owns the largest collection of Van Goghs in the world: over 200 paintings, 500 drawings, around 800 letters and some of the artist’s personal belongings.
The Munch Museum in Oslo
Four years before his death in 1944, Edvard donated all his artworks to the city of Oslo. It was an immense gift: some 1,100 paintings, almost 18,000 prints and around 3,000 drawings.
Edvard at home in Ekely, 1943
Edvard’s sister Inger donated even more works, along with a collection of letters. The Munch Museum opened in 1963 and owns more than half of Edvard’s paintings and prints.
For both Edvard and Vincent, art and life were inseparably linked. Language and images together helped them fathom the mystery of life.
Art, they believed, had to be true and sincere: only then could it have a future.
