Edvard Munch, "Self Portrait," 1896
Edvard Munch’s artwork captivates the soul, staring straight into the humanity of love, loss, and peaceful life experiences. As we celebrate his 151th birthday today we not only celebrate the legacy of his art but his life: tragically inspiring.
Munch’s artwork is known as being incredibly personal and he suffered tremendous loss with his mother dying when he was young followed by one of his sisters’ almost 10 years later. Another one of his sisters’ had a mental illness, and at the age of 30 his brother died of pneumonia. Munch himself developed a severe drinking problem along with having a mental illness that he said came from his father, “…The angels of fear, sorrow, and death stood by my side since the day I was born.”
Continually checking himself into a private sanitarium throughout his life, Munch’s art speaks to struggle and finding the beauty within life. For him art was life, a way to express himself and deal with the illness that plagued him. Today his works are some of the most coveted in the market with his most famous being The Scream (1893), Ashes (1894), The Dance of Life (1899) and The Dead Mother (1900).
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