Thematic tour

Munch dealt with the same themes again and again in his works: illness, fear, death, love, jealousy, despair, loneliness and melancholy. The decisive and formative influences in his youth were the death of his mother and of his sister Sophie after a long illness. He overcame these traumatic experiences with his drawings "The sick child" and "Death in the sickroom". The other important subject area for Munch was love and its consequences. From the "growth" of the first love to nearness, fulfilment, failure, separation, jealousy and melancholy he repeatedly dealt with the single phases of a love affair. During an interval due to his momentary psychological state of health, he constantly revised versions of his paintings or prints. In the field of graphic art, he already treated existing print plates to make new variants. Often, he spent decades with one particular motive. Only through the repeated treatment in different pictorial representations was he able to present all the different facets that it contained. With the combination of all of the variants, the theme became complete.

Begin the tour of all the themes or select a theme:.

Fight between the Sexes: Love and Jealousy.
Sickness and Death.
Loneliness and Fear of Existence.
Portraits.
Self Portraits.