愛德華．孟克

理查德．穆特爾（1908年前購入）
克里斯蒂．海伯格（1927年前購入）
黑森州州立博物館， 達姆施塔特（1929年購入）
卡爾．諾伊曼， 巴門（1937年6月24日購自上述人士）
賣出：城市拍賣行，奧斯陸， 1939年1月19日， 拍品編號9
奧非拉色克夫霍．埃克霍夫， 奧斯陸（1939年購入）
拉夫．慧爾賀， 奧斯陸

克里斯蒂, 布羅姆奎斯特畫廊, 「愛德華•孟克展」, 1903年, 品號27
布雷斯勞, 弗朗茨•哈恩克, 「晾衣房」, 1908年
國家畫廊, 奧斯陸, 「愛德華•孟克展」, 1927年, 品號112 （稱《Klaedesvask》）
藍色工廠藝術館, 莫頓, 「愛德華•孟克和阿恩•科維的夏季」, 1999年, 品號24, 圖錄附彩色圖版
巴黎, 巴黎陳列館, 「愛德華•孟克, 或『反吶喊』」, 2010年, 品號41, 圖錄附彩色圖版

格爾•德沃爾, 《愛德華•孟克繪畫全集, 1898－1908》, 第2冊, 倫敦, 2009年, 品號529, 圖版頁563

This work is in excellent condition. Original canvas. Surface is clean. Under UV light, 1½ inch area of inpainting in center of the sky and a hair line of inpainting 5 inches long in the sky at left, otherwise fine.
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Munch first visited Åsgårdstrand, a resort a few miles to the south of Oslo, in autumn of 1888. He took a holiday residence there in the summer of 1889, which he rented for some years until he purchased a house in 1897. In the following years, Munch travelled widely across Europe, making extended visits to Berlin, Paris and Hamburg, but often returned to Åsgårdstrand during the summer months. He painted some of his finest landscapes there, characterized by his expressive winding line and strong, vivid colors.

In Klestørk i Åsgårdstrand, Munch depicts a domestic scene, elevating a routine task to a swirl of brilliant colors. This subjet matter reveals the influence of Vincent van Gogh's early works of which the artist was certainly aware from having seen exhibitions of his work in Paris (fig. 1). The subtler expressionism of van Gogh's early works is transformed into an explosive scene in Munch's interpretation. 

Munch himself considered the early years of the twentieth century some of the most difficult, yet most productive ones of his career. His emphasis during this time transitioned from the interior scenes with narrative to outdoor scenes that embraced a new sense of abstraction and liberated color. This shift of focus, however, did not signify a departure from his earlier obsession with tormented, angst-ridden individuals. On the contrary, it was precisely this emotional and mental instability that gave the artist the insight to produce such masterpieces as the present work, in which he reached a certain level of abstraction, expressing the joys and anxieties of the human condition through the pictorial elements of color and form. Klestørk i Åsgårdstrand throbs with a sense of movement that is particular to his works from Åsgårdstrand while the ghostlike, haunting presence of the figure harkens back to Munch's existential imagery from the 1890's.

Munch's works of this period had a strong influence on German Expressionist painters, who had the opportunity to see his works in several exhibitions in Germany between 1905 and 1908. The brilliant, wild palette that dominated Munch's canvases had a powerful impact on the Die Brücke artists who were eager to move away from their urban surroundings in Berlin and other cities, and to embrace the more 'primitive' life-style and wild nature of the northern German coast. It was the daring, expressive power of Munch's landscapes, pulsating with undulating lines and vivid, dramatic brush-strokes, that had such a profound effect on some of the major figures of twentieth century art including Kirchner, Schmidt-Rottluff, Pechstein and Heckel.