Edvard Munch

Drypoint, 1895, a fine, fresh impression, Woll's third state (of four), Schiefler's second state (of three), signed in pencil, most likely printed by Felsing, on sturdy cream wove paper, with wide margins, in good condition apart from slight discoloration along the lower and left sheet edges, framed

The print is in good condition as catalogued. There is slight discoloration in a dark brown color along the left sheet edge at bottom and lower sheet edge at left.
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.

In both his personal and artistic lives, Munch was largely influenced by tragedy and misfortune. Just after his seventieth birthday, he explained that "sickness, insanity and death were the dark angels standing guard at my cradle and they have followed me throughout my life."  In Moonlight. Night in St. Cloud, we recognize an important philosophical transformation in his life and work.  In January of 1890, months after the death of his father and still carrying the pain of his mother and sister's deaths from tuberculosis years prior, Edvard Munch moved from the Paris city centre to the suburb of St. Cloud.  While there, he isolated himself in a room and ceased painting, taking up a friendship with the radical Danish poet Emanuel Goldstein, the purported subject of this print. Though he created the print five years later, the dark and brooding sentiment he longed to capture remained with him many years later. He wrote in his journal, later referred to as the 'St. Cloud Manifesto', that "there should be no more painting of people reading and women knitting. In future, they should be of people who breathe, who feel emotions, who suffer and love." This sentiment represented his ultimate commitment to Symbolism, as he began to shape his desire to imbue his works with psychological resonance and connect visual forms with the realities of human existence. He would come to name this idea the Frieze of Life and would, through the course of his life, create prints, paintings, and drawings capturing the basic elements that thread every living being together- love, anxiety, and death. As Reinhold Heller writes, "the cycle demonstrates above all how Munch extended the obsessive personal nature of his subjects into universal symbols of emotional states."