Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch (1863–1944) was a Norwegian painter and printmaker, associated with Symbolism and Expressionism. He was born at Ådalsbruk in Løten and began studying at the Royal School of Art and Design in Kristiania, now Oslo, in 1881. He spent time in Paris, where he saw the work of Gauguin, Van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec, and built his career largely in Norway and Germany. Munch's best-known subject is the cycle he called The Frieze of Life, which deals with love, anxiety, jealousy and death. It includes The Sick Child, The Scream, Madonna and The Dance of Life. His 1892 exhibition in Berlin caused a scandal and closed after a week. He suffered a breakdown in 1908 and spent months in a clinic in Copenhagen. In 1916 he finished the murals for the University of Oslo's assembly hall. He died at his Ekely estate near Oslo in 1944. The Munch Museum in Oslo holds the largest collection of his work.