Unfortunately, almost everyone has resonated at some time or other with Edvard Munch’s The Scream (1893). So much so, it seems, that a recent investigation found that the legendary masterpiece had been damaged by eager visitors breathing too heavily in front of the work. The iconic painting wasn’t the only time that the leading Norwegian modernist sought to personify some form of existential angst, with other examples being Despair (1894) and Melancholy (1891). Yet, it was in the many portraits also produced by Munch that he was able to attempt a slightly more subtle probing of the human condition.
A group of more than 40 of these character studies have just gone on display as part of “Edvard Munch Portraits” at the National Portrait Gallery in London, through June 15. The exhibition reveals new dimensions to Munch, using his art to build up a vivid sense of his biography, his wider cultural milieu, and his developing style before, during, and after several influential years spent in Paris and Berlin.
Though many of the paintings on display, especially those of family or close friends, contain the moments of brilliance we would expect from such an internationally beloved artist, some of his society portraits are surprisingly slapdash and inept. It may be that some level of intimacy was required for Munch to do what he does best: employ gestural brushwork to make paint quite magically metamorphose into a bewitching psychological presence.
“Throughout his life, Munch sought to delve behind the masks of those he portrayed, using expressive paintwork to reveal inner feelings and motivations,” explained the show’s curator Alison Smith.
Here is our pick of five must-see masterpieces from the show.
Tête-à-tête (1885)
Painted when Munch, who was born in late 1863, was just 21, Tête-à-tête is a scene in which the artist’s friend, fellow artist Karl Jensen-Hjell, can be seen from behind appearing to chat up a mysterious woman at a bar. It has been suggested that the woman in the picture is Munch’s sister Inger, which, though he was immersed in bohemian circles, may have risked her reputation in the late 19th century. This may be why neither sitter was ever formally identified, but double portraits, building narrative around subjects, and integrating them into a seemingly natural, candid scene, would all be recurring features of Munch’s later work.
Evening (1888)
A few years later, Munch painted his other sister Laura in Evening, a painting that might on the surface appear to be a pleasant scene of a woman in a straw sunhat enjoying a sunny vista. That is, until the viewer squares in on the subject’s face, with her intense stare betraying an inner turmoil that would align with the mental health condition that Laura struggled with. The sense of alienation is heightened by a ghostly white presence faintly perceivable at the center of the canvas, the remnants of an original composition that included a standing woman, most likely Munch’s other sister Inger. With her absence, the composition becomes an obvious precursor to Melancholy, which contains a similarly posed figure modeled on Munch’s friend Jappe Nilssen.
Thor Lütken (1892)
In one apparently ordinary portrait of Munch’s friend, the lawyer Thor Lütken, eagle-eyed observers will spot an intriguing painting within a painting. What could, at a glance, be the white cuff poking out from a black jacket sleeve, appears, in fact, to be one of two figures—one dressed in white, the other in black—making their way through a mysterious, moonlit landscape. This highly unusual vignette is left ambiguous, and it is up to the viewer to decide whether it might be an allusion to romance or death, two themes that recurred frequently in Munch’s work.
The Brooch. Eva Mudocci (1902)
Munch’s prints are among the most affecting works on view at the National Portrait Gallery, including the lithograph The Brooch. Eva Mudocci, of the English violinist who was a friend and potentially lover of the artist. According to the exhibition catalogue, during Munch’s Symbolist phase, he tended to portray women as either positive or negative archetypes. If he admired the woman, as was the case with Mudocci, they might be idolized, but other women with whom he had more painful relationships were imagined as malevolent femme fatales.
Model with a Green Scarf (Sultan Abdul Karim) (1916)
Munch made portraits of many of the men who worked for him, and one of these was his chauffeur Sultan Abdul Karem, who had arrived to Norway as a traveling member of the German Hagenbeck Circus. He and Munch met during a stop in Oslo. Eventually, the artist made seven paintings and one lithography of Karem, and the nature of these works differs greatly. In Cleopatra and the Slave, he is represented as an enslaved person, reinforcing racist stereotypes of Black people at that time. However, in Model with a Green Scarf, Karem is not exoticized or othered but shown simply as he was, wearing casual winter clothes.
“Edvard Munch Portraits” is on view at the National Portrait Gallery in London through June 15.
