On the shore of Åsgårdstrand, where Edvard Munch spent long Norwegian summer days, a forlorn man gazes into the sea. The pensive sitter, hunched over and posed as the philosophical ‘thinker’, represents the artist’s close friend Jappe Nilssen. The contemplative Nilssen, an eminent writer and critic, found himself entangled in a doomed love affair with the painter Oda Lasson Krohg. His dear Oda is depicted further along the shoreline, joined by her other lover Christian Krohg, soon to be whisked away by rowboat. A placid, yet mysterious and psychologically charged scene, it is unclear whether the couple in the distance is physically present or a figment of Nilssen’s overwrought imagination.

No stranger to heartache and loss, Munch empathised with his tormented friend, so much so that he was moved to explore Nilssen’s plight several times over. The artist first rendered this motif in 1891 in pastel, followed by several paintings, then the first printed example in 1896, Melancholy I. Perhaps the most tireless and inventive printmaker of the modern era, Munch experimented with several iterations of this woodcut before arriving at Melancholy III, his technical masterpiece. This advanced composition is a product of the artist’s "jigsaw" approach: employing an oak woodblock sawn into three pieces, he inked each portion individually before reassembling his desired image.

This fragmented technique enhances the sense of isolation in Melancholy III, a key theme across Munch’s oeuvre which is best expressed in this evocative print. Munch’s "jigsaw" approach also allowed him to revisit and reimagine Melancholy III numerous times, experimenting with variations of texture and colour in each instance. Each impression of this subject is thus unique in tone and atmosphere. The present crepuscular scene, printed in earth tones and layers of cool, glimmering teal and greens, is a serene and reflective rendition of the subject. Viewers are invited to experience the stillness of a Norwegian summer evening and consider nature’s effect on the disquieted mind.

This particularly tranquil, jewel-toned example of the composition bears a strong resemblance to Albrecht Dürer’s master engraving Melencolia I, wherein the arts and humours are personified to portray the archetypal melancholic artist by the shore. Just as Dürer is believed to have identified with his woeful sitter, Munch recognised much of his own anguish in Nilssen’s pain. While Melancholy III grapples with the critic’s personal predicament, it alludes to Munch’s very own, relatable romantic despair.