Edvard Munch Norwegian, 1863-1944

Johanna Munch, the sitter's widow and sister-in-law of Edvard Munch, Oslo, (a gift from the artist)
Thence by descent to the present owners

Painted circa 1882-83, Andreas was Munch's younger brother by two years. Unlike Edvard, as a child Andreas enjoyed good health and was successful at school, attending with Edvard the school attached to Oslo cathedral. He went on to train as a doctor, and his prospects seemed set fair when he wed Johanna, the daughter of a headmaster in April 1895. Tragedy, however, struck soon after the marriage when Andreas died suddenly in November of the same year, aged just 30. His widow gave birth to their daughter some months later. Christened Andrea, Munch provided for his niece thoughout his life and gave this painting of Andreas to his sister-in-law as a keep-sake, where it has remained in the family's possession ever since.

Although Munch was admitted to the Royal School of Art and Design in 1881, he relied on members of his immediate family to model for him. And he painted Andreas on several occasions in the early 1890s. Of his brother's artistic demands, Andreas complained at the time: 'We all ... have to sit as models, the place is littered with half-finished pictures that bear witness to his proficiency as a painter, but also to lack of follow through' (quoted in Sue Prideaux, Edvard Munch, Behind the Scream, 2005, p. 47), a working practice which earnt Munch both approbation and criticisism during his life.  

The present work was painted in the family flat at Olaf Ryes Plass in Grünerløkka, a new suburb on the eastern edge of Kristiania. There Edvard and Andreas shared a room. Edvard painted four or five portraits of Andreas at this time, works that underline the sitter's studious nature (see fig. 1 for another painting that Munch painted of Andreas the same year). Munch included few props in these oils, producing instead compositions that express the family's straitened circumstances. Silhouetted against the window, in the present work Andreas strikes a nonchalant pose.

Fig. 1, Edvard Munch, Andreas Munch in an Interior, 1883, National Gallery, Oslo (digi ref: 406D06104)