Edvard Munch

Karen Bjølstad, Kristiania (acquired from the artist)

Inger Munch, Kristiania (acquired from the above)

Nils Ustvedt, Oslo (a gift from the above in 1950)

Sale: Blomqvist Kunsthandel, Oslo, 1959

Mrs. Randal Scobie, Drammen (acquired by 1980)

Private Collection, Oslo (acquired by 1992)

Sale: Blomqvist Kunsthandel, Oslo, 1998

Acquired at the above sale

Modum, Blaafarvevaerket, Sommeren med Edvard Munch og Arne Kavli, 1999, no. 18, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Rome, Complesso del Vittoriano, Munch 1863-1944, 2005, no. 6, illustrated in color the catalogue

Basel, Fondation Beyeler & Künzelsau, Kunsthalle Würth, Edvard Munch: Signs of Modern Art, 2007, no. 15, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Oslo, Munch Museum, Munch becoming "Munch": Artistic Strategies, 1880-1892, 2008-09, no. 161, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Copenhagen, Ordrugaard & Oslo, Munch Museum, Edvard Munch and Denmark, 2009-10, no. 13, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Gøsta Svenæus, "Munch och Strindberg, Quickborn Episoden," Kunst og Kultur, vol. 52, no. 1, Oslo, 1969, p. 30

Munch et la France (exhibition catalogue), Musée d'Orsay, Paris; The Munch Museum, Oslo & Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, 1989, mentioned p. 90

Gerd Woll, Edvard Munch, Complete Paintings, 1880 - 1897, vol. I, London, 2009, no. 287, illustrated p. 270

This work is in excellent condition. There is a mild crease in upper right corner as well as a few minor abrasions to the surface at the lower and upper left corners. Under UV light, no inpainting is apparent.
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.

Natt i Saint-Cloud is a seminal work from a critical juncture in Munch's oeuvre. Munch first painted this motif in 1890, shortly after the death of his father. The work became an intense emotional expression for the artist, imbued with melancholy and foreboding. He executed the work in St. Cloud, a western suburb of Paris where the artist rented a room (fig. 2).

Removed from the bustle of the city, Munch spent many hours contemplating the recent tragedy of his father's death and deciding upon a new direction in his art. It was during these dark days that Munch decided to abandon the naturalism of his early career. He would emerge with the "St. Cloud Manifesto", a declaration of his artistic direction. He wrote, "There would be no more paintings of interiors. Paintings of people reading, and women knitting. There would be paintings of real people who breathed, felt, suffered and loved. I felt I had to do this -- that it would be easy. The flesh would have volume, the colours would be alive" (reprinted in Poul Erik Tøjner, Munch, In His Own Words, Munich, 2001, p. 93). This new vision will give rise to The Frieze of Life, in which Natt i Saint-Cloud will take its place alongside such as masterpieces as The Scream, Vampire, and Puberty.

Munch executed five versions of Natt i Saint-Cloud, clearly fixated on its subtle power. The present version was executed in 1892 and subsequently given to his aunt, Karen Bjølstad, who had taken over his childhood home after his mother's untimely death. The work then passed into the hands of the artist's sister, Inger Munch. Inger then inscribed a plate affixed to the back of the work when she gifted the work to Nils Ustvedt, a solicitor in Oslo.

Dieter Buchhart has written of this motif's significance in the scope of Munch's oeuvre: "In Night in St. Cloud of 1890 [fig. 1], Munch once again heightened the expression of melancholy into something between dejection, sorrow, and depressed disgruntlement. Although Danish poet Emmanuel Goldstein sat for the despondent figure at the window, the pictures seems to be much more about Munch's own state of mind after the death of this father. The window frame casts a double crucifix shadow on the floor of the empty room, while the man with the top hat seems to blend into the night. Emptiness, dissolution, darkness, and cross shapes allude to death, sorrow, and solitude, with the interior becoming the mirror of the soul and the window the interface between inner experience and external reality" (Dieter Buchhart, Edvard Munch: Signs of Modern Art (exhibition catalogue), op. cit., p. 43).