Lot 13
  • 13

Edvard Munch

Estimate
70,000 - 110,000 USD
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Description

  • Edvard Munch
  • The Sick Child I (W. 72; S. 59)
  • Signed Edv. Munch lower right
  • Lithograph
  • image: 422 by 568 mm 16 1/2 by 22 1/2 in
  • sheet: 510 by 639 mm
Lithograph printed in black, grey and pale yellow, 1896, signed in pencil, on China paper, printed by Clot, framed

Condition

With margins. Several losses, skin spots and tears in the margins, the largest in the lower margin at left. The print is slightly soiled, backed with Japan.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

In The Sick Child I opened for myself a new path – it was a breakthrough in my art. Most of what I have done since had its birth in this picture.
Edvard Munch

The beautiful Sick Child prints merit attention as singularly outrageous art products: bonbons of morbidity.
Peter Schjeldahl

Considered by Edvard Munch to be his most important print, this image was permanently engrained in the artist’s memory, stemming from the early death of his sister in 1877 from tuberculosis when she was fifteen years of age, and the artist was a young boy. It permeated much of the artist’s oeuvre his entire artistic career. Munch alternated between painting this subject and rendering it in etching and lithography, using techniques from both media to enhance the other. Clearly the young girl is faced with death, as she turns her head to face the finality of her situation, represented by a blank wall. There is an abundance of rich surface texture and lines which serve as a foil to the simple structure and meaning of the image.  While Munch experimented over and over in the printing of this lithograph, using several stones for different and effective color combinations, he was able to explore an entire gamut of interpretation and flexibility only afforded in graphic art.  But it is in this first state, of the black stone only, that the force of line perfectly conveys the anguish of sickness and the loss of life; the nuance between life and death is explored by the tension between line and space.