Werner Timm - Edvard Munch - 1982

9 The Three Faces of Woman

7 2. 5 x 1 oo cm . Oil on canvas. 1 89 5 . Oslo, Munch Museum

I n 1 89 5 Henrik Ibsen, the Norwegian poet and dramatist, visited Munch's exhibition in Christiania in which a large part of his "Frieze of Life" was on view. Munch writes : "He was particularly interested in 'The Three Faces of Woman.' I had to explain the picture to him : 'This is the dreaming woman, this, the woman who thirsts for life, and the wan, pale-faced woman behind the trees is the nun'."

It was Munch's aim to depict certain characteristic facets of a woman's life. The longing dreams of the young girl, the passionate desire of the mature woman and the quiet resignation of the ageing woman-or one might also say virgin , courtesan , and nun. Like so

many of Munch's works this picture exists in a great many versions . In one of them the woman in black carries a man's head i n her hand s . N o doubt the attribute i s not merely meant a s a symbol of death-it strongly alludes to ·his pictures of Salome which have to be under­ stood as expressions of his besetting p roblem : his love-hate relation­ ship with the female sex .

The version illustrated here shows on the right-hand side the figure of a man leaning against a tree with downcast eyes, his face turned away from the woman in an attitude of despair. As in many others of Munch's pictures the coastal landscape in the background is meant to symbolize the contrast between our short l i fespan and the eternal forces of nature.

Graphic treatments of the s u bject include an etch i ng in point and aquatint, and a lithograph in

Symbolic s t u d y .

5 5 . 5 x 6 8 . 5 cm .

Guache. 1 8 9 3 .

Oslo,

Munch Museum

1 1 The Girl and the Heart

62 x 47 . 7 cm . Chal k. Before 1 896. Oslo, Munch Museum

Munch tended to express the ideas underlying his pictures in ever new and unexpected ways. Variants of this motif-here drawn in chalk with bold sweeping strokes-exist in the form of other draw­ ings, as a dry-point etching and again as a colour wood-cut, all dating from the period 1 896 to 1 899. "The Girl and the Heart" represents in a more explicit symbolic form an idea Munch also expressed in other works from the same period such as "Vampire" ( 1 894) and "Harpy" ( 1 900) in which legendary winged female mon­ sters attack male victims. The heart the girl holds in her hand signi-

fies for Munch the defencelessness of the male because of his bond­ age to passion and sin. Another drawing varies the idea by showing a heart devoured by a snake, the age-old symbol of temptation, sin and cunning. On an etching dated 1 896 bearing the same title as our drawing a naked young woman presses a bleeding heart between her hands. And on one of the prints of the colour wood-cut entitled "The Heart" which deals with the same general theme Munch him­ self inscribed the title : "Ca!ur saignant."

At about the same time Munch gave expression to his conviction that j ust as a lover offers up his heart to the loved one the artist must water the flower of his art with his heart's blood to make it grow, in the words : "All art, literature or music must be brought forth_by the blood of our hearts ."

1 2 The Dance of Life

1 25 . 5 x 190. 5 cm. Oil on canvas. About 1 899/ I 900. Oslo, National Gallery

As early as 1889, while he was watching people dancing in Paris, Munch conceived of the dance as of a symbol of life and felt the urge to depict it as such. The subject of people dancing on the sea shore became one of the major themes of his "Frieze of Life." In the ver­ sion represented here the foreground is filled with four figures in a strictly symmetrical composition . To the left there is a very young girl dressed in a light-coloured frock. A delicate flower sprouting close to her serves to underline the nature of young womanhood, its tenderness, innocence and flower-like quality . The centre is taken up by two dancers whose bodies touch each other closely . The bright

red of the woman 's dress signi fies the sudden upsurge of love, pas­ sion and sensuality . As a deliberate contrast to the girl on the left we see on the opposite side the figure of an older woman in a sombre dress. She stands isolated and alone, her face expressing resignation . Nearer the water more couples are seen dancing and embracing. Conspicuous on the right-hand side is the face of a man thrust greed ­ ily towards a woman who turns away in disgust. Close to the water's edge a girl in a light dress is just looking on . Because dancing brings together people in very different states of mind whose relationships with each other may also vary greatly. Munch uses the dance to de­ pict the cycle of longing, fulfilment and resignation that is life. At the same time the background of earth, sea and sky and the erotic symbol of the midnight sun reinforce the elemental character of the painting and stress the inexorable subjection of the dancers to the immutable forces of nature.

13 Train Smoke 8 5 x 109 cm. Oil on canvas . A round 1900. Oslo, Munch Museum

Munch undoubtedly ranks as one of the great landscape painters of our century. Landscapes represent an important part of his ceuvre. However, painting landscapes dit not always mean the same thing to him. He might have been painting a mood landscape reflecting a certain emotional state. Or a landscape to signify the firm ground on which we stand and the world which surrounds us-both frequently represented by a short stretch of coastline with the sea beyond-or finally landscape may have been something he wanted to paint for its own intrinsic beauty. He is deeply anchored in the majestic scenery of his native Norway and particularly in that of the shores of Oslo fjord . Quite early in life the artist, who was to spend so many restless years in the big cities of Europe, remarked that the Norwegian landscape

was in itself an important reason for returning home eventually, thus testifying to the great significance it had for his art. Indeed it seems that Munch, a modern Antaeus , needed frequent contacts with its austere beauty to renew his strength and vigour. To one such revi­ talizing encounter we owe the picture reproduced on the opposite page. In its quiet grandeur, its restful harmony and contemplative calm there are no signs of the turbulent problems that troubled his mind. When he painted the view from the northern shore of the wide expanse of fjord and small islands he was wholly absorbed in the mood of the evening with its strange purple hues. The tall green pines on both sides of the picture accentuate the vertical and coun­ terbalance the dominating horizontal elements of the composition , thus strengthening its structure. Everything in the picture is boldly stated , in tune with the great sweep of the landscape itself. A white smoke cloud from a passing train stretches right across the picture. Hence the name.