1902
Woodcut
69.5 x 60.0 cms Plate size: 46.0 x 48.0 cm
Sold
printed in blue, brown and two shades of green, a very fine and fresh impression of this rare print, on golden-toned wove paper
During the 1890's Munch spent the summer months in Asgardstrand, where the Norwegian summer days and nights provided inspiration for his mood-filled landscapes.
Mondschein is one of a small number of major subjects Munch created during the 1890's that he repeated in the medium of printmaking. In the present print the artist takes a subject executed in oil in 1893, and dramatically re-works it making astounding use of the woodcut medium. The inking of the present impression allows the grain of the woodblock to speak its own natural 'language', harmonising with the mysterious nature of the motif itself.
Of the 1893 painting it has been written, 'In "Moonlight" of 1893 Munch projects the mystical mood of the summer night onto a solitary woman who stands in the moonlight in front of the white fence of a dark house. Her face in the half light has a ghostly character. A large shadow cast against the wall of the house charges the image with drama, which is enhanced by the shape suggested in the left foreground.
Apart from the white light of the moon reflected on the fence the window frame and the window itself, all is in darkness. The shadow on the wall, and the deep green that outlines the contour of the figure, create a great curving motion in sharp contrast to the otherwise austere composition, which is dominated by horizontal and vertical lines. Munch's use of shape, line and colour to create an anxiety-ridden, mystical atmosphere is also found in several other landscape paintings produced during the summer of 1893 which have the same deep colouring as "Moonlight". As Arne Eggum has pointed out, this is probably directly attributable to the influence of Arnold Böcklin. En route to Nice in the autumn of 1891, Munch had visited the Kunsthalle in Hamburg where, among other things, he had seen the Swiss artist's landscapes with their all-pervading moods and symbols.
From existing sketches it is possible to trace how the composition of "Moonlight" evolved over a long period, during which the female figure gradually became the dominant element. Her pose in "Moonlight" can be seen in other paintings, including "The Voice", which was also painted in Asgardstrand in the summer of 1893'' (Edvard Munch, The Frieze of Life, National Gallery London, 1993).
CONTACT GALLERY
G. Schiefler, Verzeichnis des graphischen Werks Edvard Munchs, bis 1906, Berlin 1907, no.81BGerd Woll, Edvard Munch, The complete Graphic Works, London 2001, no. 202
