Edvard Munch

Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne, 1925 (acquired in 1925 and deaccessioned as degenerate art in 1938, inventory number 15660)

Harald Holst Halvorsens Kunsthandel, Oslo (acquired from the above in 1938 for RM 450)

Sale: "Edvard Munchs tyske museumsmalerier," Harald Holst Halvorsens Kunsthandel, Oslo, 1939, lot 36

Generalkonsul P.M. Röwde, Oslo (acquired at the above sale)

Private Collection, Oslo (by descent from the above and sold: Sotheby's, London, February 5, 2007, lot 67)

Acquired at the above sale by A. Alfred Taubman

Oslo, Blomquist Kunsthandel, Edvard Munch, 1916

Oslo, Kunstnernes Hus, Edvard Munch. Malerier, akvareller, tegninger, grafikk, 1951, no. 85

Gerd Woll, Edvard Munch Complete Paintings, vol. III, London, 2009, no. 1185, illustrated in color p. 1107

Please contact the Impressionist and Modern Art Department at (212) 606-7360 for the condition report for this lot.
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.
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Munch's vibrant depiction of a ploughed field exemplified the expressive power of his landscape painting. The present work depicts the fields near Ekely, just outside Oslo, where Munch settled in 1916. Ekely was a large estate with several buildings and eleven acres of grounds, where Munch supervised farming during the war years. Having recovered form his earlier nervous breakdown, the artist embraced the tranquillity of this self-sufficient environment away from the city. Whilst Munch's early landscapes usually mirror the artist’s mood, often with sombre or mystical undertones, his later treatment of this genre is a celebration of nature and its forces. The regular lines of the ploughed field convey a sense of harmony between man and nature, while compositionally providing a perspectival device that leads the viewer's eye towards the background.

Elizabeth Prelinger wrote about Munch's art executed at Ekely: "Ekely became for Munch what the villa and garden at Giverny meant for the Impressionist painter Claude Monet: a rich source of inspiration for his art and nourishment for his soul. Drawing upon the many vistas throughout Ekely, Munch replaced the cycle of human emotional experience — the frequent subject of his early art —with the age-old tradition of celebrating the grand cycle of life as seen through the seasons and seasonal activities. Although many of the images seem like simple depictions of simple activities, they are layered with the issues that the artist had been confronting since returning to Norway. These include the politics of subject matter and painting style" (E. Prelinger, After the Scream: The Late Paintings of Edvard Munch (exhibition catalogue), High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 2002, p. 51).