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Delphi Masters of Art #38
Collected Paintings of Edvard Munch
The Norwegian painter Edvard Munch produced some of the most intensely evocative images of modern art. Building upon nineteenth century Symbolism and greatly influencing German Expressionism, masterpieces such as ‘The Scream’ have left a lasting impression on the history of art. Munch’s harrowing and unique paintings present a paranoid, troubled world, revealing the importance of art for expressing human experience. Delphi’s Masters of Art Series presents the world’s first digital e-Art books, allowing readers to explore the works of great artists in comprehensive detail. This volume presents Munch’s complete pre-1923 works in beautiful detail, with concise introductions, hundreds of high quality images and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1) * All the Munch paintings in the US public domain — over 1250 paintings, fully indexed and arranged in chronological and alphabetical order * Includes reproductions of rare works * Features a special ‘Highlights’ section, with concise introductions to the masterpieces, giving valuable contextual information * Enlarged ‘Detail’ images, allowing you to explore Munch’s celebrated works in detail, as featured in traditional art books * Hundreds of images in colour – highly recommended for viewing on tablets and smart phones or as a valuable reference tool on more conventional eReaders * Special chronological and alphabetical contents tables for the paintings * Easily locate the paintings you wish to view * Includes a selection of Munch's drawings - explore the artist’s varied works Please to comply with US copyright law, this eBook cannot feature Munch’s post-1922 paintings. When new works enter the public domain, they will be added to the eBook as a free update. Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting e-Art books The Highlights FROM MARIDALEN THE SICK CHILD SPRING NIGHT IN SAINT-CLOUD MELANCHOLY EVENING ON KARL JOHAN STREET PUBERTY SELF PORTRAIT WITH A CIGARETTE SUMMER NIGHT PORTRAIT OF HANS JÆGER DEATH IN THE SICKROOM VAMPIRE THE VOICE MADONNA THE DANCE OF LIFE THE SCREAM JEALOUSY GIRLS ON THE BRIDGE PORTRAIT OF WALTER RATHENAU PORTRAIT OF DR. DANIEL JACOBSON THE SUN WORKERS ON THEIR WAY HOME The Paintings THE COLLECTED PAINTINGS DETAILED LIST OF PAINTINGS ALPHABETICAL LIST OF PAINTINGS The Drawings LIST OF DRAWINGS Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles or to buy the whole Art series as a Super Set
- GenresArtNonfictionHistory
2143 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 20, 2017
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91 people want to read
About the author
Edvard Munch
143 books95 followersEdvard Munch was a Norwegian painter and printmaker whose intensely evocative treatment of psychological themes built upon some of the main tenets of late 19th-century Symbolism and greatly influenced German Expressionism in the early 20th century. One of his most well-known works is The Scream of 1893.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 21, 2020
Who has not seen the painting "The Scream", I do not remember when I first saw it but I know I was quite young. Though I have seen this painting, I had no idea about other works or anything else about artist, Edvard Munch. I added many highlights below about his life that gives the viewer an idea of the man behind the art. Munch had mental illness like Vincent van Gogh, but recovering to paint some more. They say that his paintings were lacking the darkness after his health regained but I saw a fair amount of darkness in several paintings, so to me he still had that aspect. The colors or the faces can have a kind of demonic look and many paintings had incomplete faces. I was impressed by his ability to like so many artist, that his work could look so real and other times look so incomplete. I enjoyed many of his Impressionistic paintings and overall liked him. His devotion to his family was wonderful.
"Edvard Munch was born in a farmhouse in the village of Ådalsbruk in Løten, then part of the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, to Laura Catherine Bjølstad and Christian Munch, the son of a priest. Christian was a doctor and medical officer who married Laura, a woman half his age, in 1861. The family moved to Christiania (now Oslo) in 1864 when Christian Munch was appointed medical officer at Akershus Fortress. Early tragic events would have a lasting influence on the mental well-being and subsequent art of Edvard Munch. His mother died of tuberculosis in 1868, as did his favourite sister Johanne Sophie in 1877. After his mother’s death, the Munch children were raised by their father and their aunt Karen. Often ill for much of the winters and kept out of school, Edvard would draw to keep himself occupied. He was tutored by his school friends and his aunt. Christian Munch also instructed his son in history and literature, and entertained the children with vivid ghost-stories and the tales of the American writer Edgar Allan Poe."
"One of Munch’s younger sisters, Laura, was diagnosed with mental illness at an early age. Of the five siblings, only Andreas married, but he died a few months after the wedding. Munch later wrote, “I inherited two of mankind’s most frightful enemies — the heritage of consumption and insanity.”
"Christian Munch’s military pay was very low and his attempts to develop a private side practice ultimately failed, keeping his family in genteel poverty. They moved frequently from one inexpensive apartment to another. Munch’s early drawings and watercolours represent these impoverished interiors and the mean objects that haunted them, with such examples as medicine bottles and drawing implements."
"Though his visit lasted only three weeks, his first exposure to the Parisian art scene would exert a lasting influence on the twenty-one-year old’s career. Munch was entranced by the avant-garde work of the Impressionists, which were creating a great stir at the time. He was particularly influenced by the canvases of Pissarro and Monet. However, unlike the Impressionists, that were often inspired to paint what was literally before them, depicting scenes of joy and frivolity, Munch would only borrow from these artists their use of technique. Studying their broad and expressive brushstrokes, while also lightening his palette, Munch continued his practice of producing paintings of sombre and melancholic themes. "
"Between 1885 and 1926 Munch produced a series of six paintings under the title The Sick Child. Exploring the theme of the fragility of life, the paintings draw upon Munch’s personal traumatic experiences, especially the loss of his sister to tuberculosis at the age of fourteen, as well as several haunting visits to dying patients with his father. Munch later described the first work in the series, completed in oil in 1885, as ‘a breakthrough in my art’ and it is now generally regarded as his first major work."
"Munch himself nearly died from tuberculosis as a child and so the subject of The Sick Child would become a resonant theme, as a means to record his feelings of despair and guilt that he had been the one to survive and to confront his feelings of loss for his late sister."
"The solemn atmosphere of the piece, intensified by the brooding nature of the figure’s solitary pose, could be Munch’s response to his father’s death in the autumn of 1889. Following this sad event, Munch returned to Norway, where he was faced with the financial difficulties of his father’s estate. He arranged a large loan from a wealthy Norwegian collector when wealthy relatives failed to help and from that day forward he assumed financial responsibility for his family."
"Munch created four versions of his most enduring image, The Scream, including paintings and pastels, produced between 1893 and 1910. The haunting picture portrays a hairless figure with an agonised expression, set against a landscape with a tumultuous orange sky. The German title Munch gave these works is Der Schrei der Natur (The Scream of Nature). In his diary in an entry headed “Nice 22 January 1892”, Munch recorded: “I was walking along the road with two friends – the sun was setting – suddenly the sky turned blood red – I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence – there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city – my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety – and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature... I sensed a scream passing through nature; it seemed to me that I heard the scream. I painted this picture, painted the clouds as actual blood. The colour shrieked. This became The Scream.”
"Among theories advanced to account for the reddish sky in the background is the artist’s memory of the effects of the powerful volcanic eruption of Krakatoa, which deeply tinted sunset skies red in parts of the Western hemisphere for many months during 1883 and 1884, about a decade before Munch painted The Scream. It has been suggested that the proximity of both a slaughterhouse and a lunatic asylum to the site depicted in the painting may have offered some inspiration. The scene was identified as being the view from a road overlooking Oslo, the Oslofjord and Hovedøya, from the hill of Ekeberg. At the time of painting the work, Munch’s manic depressive sister Laura Catherine was a patient at the asylum at the foot of Ekeberg
In the autumn of 1908, Munch’s anxiety, compounded by excessive drinking and brawling, had become acute. As he later wrote, “My condition was verging on madness — it was touch and go.” Suffering from hallucinations and feelings of persecution, he entered the psychiatric clinic of Dr. Daniel Jacobson in Copenhagen. His admission was the result of many years of deteriorating mental health: depression with paranoia, aggravated by alcoholism. The therapy Munch received for the next eight months included diet and electric shock treatment."
"In contrast to van Gogh, Munch made a full recovery from his breakdown and lived for a further thirty-five years. His stay in the Copenhagen hospital helped stabilise his personality, and after returning to Norway in 1909, his work became more colourful and less pessimistic."
"Further brightening his mood, the general public of Kristiania finally warmed to his work, and museums began to purchase his paintings. He was made a Knight of the Royal Order of St. Olav “for services in art”. With an improved income, Munch was able to buy several properties giving him new vistas for his paintings and he was finally able to provide for his family."
"Munch’s full recovery would ironically mark the end of his greatest achievements as an artist. On his return to Norway he sought public commissions for large mural paintings, offering subjects that were less traumatic and more peaceful, compared to the harrowing emotions that populated his earlier works."
My Favorites:
-EVENING ON KARL JOHAN STREET
-WORKERS ON THEIR WAY HOME
-Gamle Aker Church
-View from Vossveien 7 Towards Bergfjerdingen
-Hans Jæger
-Night in Nice
-Despair
"Edvard Munch was born in a farmhouse in the village of Ådalsbruk in Løten, then part of the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, to Laura Catherine Bjølstad and Christian Munch, the son of a priest. Christian was a doctor and medical officer who married Laura, a woman half his age, in 1861. The family moved to Christiania (now Oslo) in 1864 when Christian Munch was appointed medical officer at Akershus Fortress. Early tragic events would have a lasting influence on the mental well-being and subsequent art of Edvard Munch. His mother died of tuberculosis in 1868, as did his favourite sister Johanne Sophie in 1877. After his mother’s death, the Munch children were raised by their father and their aunt Karen. Often ill for much of the winters and kept out of school, Edvard would draw to keep himself occupied. He was tutored by his school friends and his aunt. Christian Munch also instructed his son in history and literature, and entertained the children with vivid ghost-stories and the tales of the American writer Edgar Allan Poe."
"One of Munch’s younger sisters, Laura, was diagnosed with mental illness at an early age. Of the five siblings, only Andreas married, but he died a few months after the wedding. Munch later wrote, “I inherited two of mankind’s most frightful enemies — the heritage of consumption and insanity.”
"Christian Munch’s military pay was very low and his attempts to develop a private side practice ultimately failed, keeping his family in genteel poverty. They moved frequently from one inexpensive apartment to another. Munch’s early drawings and watercolours represent these impoverished interiors and the mean objects that haunted them, with such examples as medicine bottles and drawing implements."
"Though his visit lasted only three weeks, his first exposure to the Parisian art scene would exert a lasting influence on the twenty-one-year old’s career. Munch was entranced by the avant-garde work of the Impressionists, which were creating a great stir at the time. He was particularly influenced by the canvases of Pissarro and Monet. However, unlike the Impressionists, that were often inspired to paint what was literally before them, depicting scenes of joy and frivolity, Munch would only borrow from these artists their use of technique. Studying their broad and expressive brushstrokes, while also lightening his palette, Munch continued his practice of producing paintings of sombre and melancholic themes. "
"Between 1885 and 1926 Munch produced a series of six paintings under the title The Sick Child. Exploring the theme of the fragility of life, the paintings draw upon Munch’s personal traumatic experiences, especially the loss of his sister to tuberculosis at the age of fourteen, as well as several haunting visits to dying patients with his father. Munch later described the first work in the series, completed in oil in 1885, as ‘a breakthrough in my art’ and it is now generally regarded as his first major work."
"Munch himself nearly died from tuberculosis as a child and so the subject of The Sick Child would become a resonant theme, as a means to record his feelings of despair and guilt that he had been the one to survive and to confront his feelings of loss for his late sister."
"The solemn atmosphere of the piece, intensified by the brooding nature of the figure’s solitary pose, could be Munch’s response to his father’s death in the autumn of 1889. Following this sad event, Munch returned to Norway, where he was faced with the financial difficulties of his father’s estate. He arranged a large loan from a wealthy Norwegian collector when wealthy relatives failed to help and from that day forward he assumed financial responsibility for his family."
"Munch created four versions of his most enduring image, The Scream, including paintings and pastels, produced between 1893 and 1910. The haunting picture portrays a hairless figure with an agonised expression, set against a landscape with a tumultuous orange sky. The German title Munch gave these works is Der Schrei der Natur (The Scream of Nature). In his diary in an entry headed “Nice 22 January 1892”, Munch recorded: “I was walking along the road with two friends – the sun was setting – suddenly the sky turned blood red – I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence – there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city – my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety – and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature... I sensed a scream passing through nature; it seemed to me that I heard the scream. I painted this picture, painted the clouds as actual blood. The colour shrieked. This became The Scream.”
"Among theories advanced to account for the reddish sky in the background is the artist’s memory of the effects of the powerful volcanic eruption of Krakatoa, which deeply tinted sunset skies red in parts of the Western hemisphere for many months during 1883 and 1884, about a decade before Munch painted The Scream. It has been suggested that the proximity of both a slaughterhouse and a lunatic asylum to the site depicted in the painting may have offered some inspiration. The scene was identified as being the view from a road overlooking Oslo, the Oslofjord and Hovedøya, from the hill of Ekeberg. At the time of painting the work, Munch’s manic depressive sister Laura Catherine was a patient at the asylum at the foot of Ekeberg
In the autumn of 1908, Munch’s anxiety, compounded by excessive drinking and brawling, had become acute. As he later wrote, “My condition was verging on madness — it was touch and go.” Suffering from hallucinations and feelings of persecution, he entered the psychiatric clinic of Dr. Daniel Jacobson in Copenhagen. His admission was the result of many years of deteriorating mental health: depression with paranoia, aggravated by alcoholism. The therapy Munch received for the next eight months included diet and electric shock treatment."
"In contrast to van Gogh, Munch made a full recovery from his breakdown and lived for a further thirty-five years. His stay in the Copenhagen hospital helped stabilise his personality, and after returning to Norway in 1909, his work became more colourful and less pessimistic."
"Further brightening his mood, the general public of Kristiania finally warmed to his work, and museums began to purchase his paintings. He was made a Knight of the Royal Order of St. Olav “for services in art”. With an improved income, Munch was able to buy several properties giving him new vistas for his paintings and he was finally able to provide for his family."
"Munch’s full recovery would ironically mark the end of his greatest achievements as an artist. On his return to Norway he sought public commissions for large mural paintings, offering subjects that were less traumatic and more peaceful, compared to the harrowing emotions that populated his earlier works."
My Favorites:
-EVENING ON KARL JOHAN STREET
-WORKERS ON THEIR WAY HOME
-Gamle Aker Church
-View from Vossveien 7 Towards Bergfjerdingen
-Hans Jæger
-Night in Nice
-Despair
January 5, 2020
I was actually very impressed by the huge amount of works Munch produced. Other than his most famous works, I’ve found some really good gems, and yet some really not that good.
Seems like Munch was aware of his future image, having duplicated his more famous works several times. The Madonna, the sick child, the melancholy image, and even that bridge and sky of the scream in several other paintings.
I was also really impressed from his drawings at the final chapter of this book.
Seems like Munch was aware of his future image, having duplicated his more famous works several times. The Madonna, the sick child, the melancholy image, and even that bridge and sky of the scream in several other paintings.
I was also really impressed from his drawings at the final chapter of this book.
February 22, 2025
This was such a letdown. I might as well just doom scrolled on Google Arts under Edvard Munch. The book has some of his paintings with background info but then it throws in a ton of his other works with zero context. I am not saying every painting needs a full essay but come on Munch literally set his goal as “In my art I attempt to explain life and its meaning to myself.” And yet the book has nothing to say about self portrait in Hell (my favorite)? No explanation of self portrait on the operating table? And drowning child? Nothing? I don’t know man. I finished with more questions than I started with.
Munch kept journals, he wrote letters. There is so much firsthand material to pull from but almost none of it made it in aside from a few scattered quotes. This man wrote "My father was temperamentally nervous and obsessively religious to the point of psychoneurosis. From him I inherited the seeds of madness. The angels of fear, sorrow, and death stood by my side since the day I was born" How do you not include more of that?? Now, instead of feeling satisfied, I have more work to do, more books to read on the heists surrounding his paintings, hunting down a proper biography, maybe even his journals. If anything, this book just gave me a longer reading list. And I am not happy about it.
“I was walking along the road with two friends. The sun was setting. Suddenly the sky turned blood red. I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence. There was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city. My friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature... I sensed a scream passing through nature; it seemed to me that I heard the scream. I painted this picture, painted the clouds as actual blood. The colour shrieked. This became The Scream."
This is what Munch himself had to say about the scream, the very painting on the cover of this book. Do you see how beautifully he constructs his sentences? Off to acquire his journals.
Munch kept journals, he wrote letters. There is so much firsthand material to pull from but almost none of it made it in aside from a few scattered quotes. This man wrote "My father was temperamentally nervous and obsessively religious to the point of psychoneurosis. From him I inherited the seeds of madness. The angels of fear, sorrow, and death stood by my side since the day I was born" How do you not include more of that?? Now, instead of feeling satisfied, I have more work to do, more books to read on the heists surrounding his paintings, hunting down a proper biography, maybe even his journals. If anything, this book just gave me a longer reading list. And I am not happy about it.
“I was walking along the road with two friends. The sun was setting. Suddenly the sky turned blood red. I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence. There was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city. My friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature... I sensed a scream passing through nature; it seemed to me that I heard the scream. I painted this picture, painted the clouds as actual blood. The colour shrieked. This became The Scream."
This is what Munch himself had to say about the scream, the very painting on the cover of this book. Do you see how beautifully he constructs his sentences? Off to acquire his journals.
June 22, 2023
Another excellent entry in the Delphi Masters series. That said, this exhaustive survey nearly exhausted me. I don't think the man ever thew anything out. Ironically, his best-known painting "The Scream" is not typical of most of his work. Many rural scenes, landscapes, seascapes. Often in these paintings, he tried to add detail with a thick brush. This clash of subject and style just didn't work, in my humble opinion--except for the seascapes for some reason. His drawings at the back of the book were more refined. But in viewing them, I missed the energetic sloppiness found in his paintings. In final summation, I must say, Munch remains one of my favorites--even after seeing his worst.
September 19, 2023
This ebook provides enormous value for very little money ($2.99 as of 2023). We are provided with a wealth of photographs of Edvard Munch’s paintings and drawings from 1880 to 1922, along with analysis of some of his greatest works and biographical material. Munch was extraordinarily prolific and was a fascinating character in his own right. He bared his soul in his work and expressed much in his favorite themes of melancholy, love, anxiety, despair, jealousy, betrayal, addiction, and mental illness. His famous and often repeated work The Scream is the most perfect representation of a panic attack that I have ever seen:
You will also find that he focused much effort on exploring nature, with landscapes making up a surprising amount of his output. This is the theme of an exhibit I went to recently in Massachusetts, Edward Much: Trembling Earth.
Any flaws? Sure. There are a handful of grammatical errors. Additionally, despite the sheer volume of paintings and drawings in this e-book, due to US copyright law it does not feature any Munch paintings created after 1922. He lived until 1944.
*
Title: Delphi Collected Paintings of Edvard Munch
Author(s): Edvard Munch (1863-1944) & Peter Russell (editor, 2017)
Series: Delphi Classics: Masters of Art #38
Year: 2017
Genre: Nonfiction - Fine art, biography, & history
Page count: 2143 pages
Date(s) read: 9/12/23 - 9/18/23
Reading journal entry #177 in 2023
Munch, E., & Russell, P. (2017). Delphi complete paintings of Edvard Munch [ebook]. Delphi Classics. https://www.delphiclassics.com/shop/e...
The German title Munch gave these works is Der Schrei der Natur (The Scream of Nature). In his diary in an entry headed “Nice 22 January 1892”, Munch recorded: “I was walking along the road with two friends – the sun was setting – suddenly the sky turned blood red – I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence – there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city – my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety – and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature... I sensed a scream passing through nature; it seemed to me that I heard the scream. I painted this picture, painted the clouds as actual blood. The colour shrieked. This became The Scream.”
You will also find that he focused much effort on exploring nature, with landscapes making up a surprising amount of his output. This is the theme of an exhibit I went to recently in Massachusetts, Edward Much: Trembling Earth.
Any flaws? Sure. There are a handful of grammatical errors. Additionally, despite the sheer volume of paintings and drawings in this e-book, due to US copyright law it does not feature any Munch paintings created after 1922. He lived until 1944.
*
Title: Delphi Collected Paintings of Edvard Munch
Author(s): Edvard Munch (1863-1944) & Peter Russell (editor, 2017)
Series: Delphi Classics: Masters of Art #38
Year: 2017
Genre: Nonfiction - Fine art, biography, & history
Page count: 2143 pages
Date(s) read: 9/12/23 - 9/18/23
Reading journal entry #177 in 2023
Munch, E., & Russell, P. (2017). Delphi complete paintings of Edvard Munch [ebook]. Delphi Classics. https://www.delphiclassics.com/shop/e...
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews