The Norwegian artist Edvard Munch was without doubt one of the 'founders' of German Expressionism.Born into the family of a doctor, Munch's early years were marked by family tragedy - first by the death of his mother when he was four, then by his elder sister when he was fourteen.Having enrolled at an engineering school he became a full time artist in 1880. Munch became very involved in the bohemian circles in Christiana (the former name for Oslo) that centered around the free thinker Hans Jaeger. In 1886 he produced his first artistic triumphs with the first versions of The Sick Child, The Day after, and Puberty. In 1892 his work caused a scandal at the Verein Berliner Kunstler and the artist became a household name in Germany almost overnight. Munch spent the next sixteen years working in Berlin, where he moved again in the bohemian circle that centered around the Swedish dramatist Strindberg, and the Polish satanist Przybyszewski at the tavern nicknamed 'Zum schwarzen Ferkel'. At this time, in 1895, he completed the series of fifteen paintings exhibited under the title 'Love', which includes the artist's most well known images. In 1902 he exhibited an extended series of these paintings under the title The Frieze of Life.After a dterioration of health caused by paranoia and drinking, munch returned to Norway in 1909 where he remained until he died. The Munch Museum in Oslo, houses an extraordinary collection of his paintings drawings and prints.