Death in the Sickroom
- Artist: Edvard Munch
- Creation date: (1893)
About
The picture shows what we can assume to be the artist’s family grouped around his sister Sophie, who died in 1877. She is sitting in a chair with her back to us. To the right stands an aunt, Karen Bjølstad, who moved in with the family to take care of the children and the household after the mother died of tuberculosis in 1868. In the background stands the father, the doctor Christian Munch, with his hands clasped as if in prayer. Near the centre of the picture is a male figure, probably Edvard, in quarter-face. Sister Laura is sitting in the foreground with her hands in her lap, while the third sister, Inger, stands staring straight at us. The male figure to the left is generally identified as Edvard’s younger brother Andreas. In Death in the Sick-Room there is no physical contact between the people, except for the hand that aunt Karen has laid on the back of the chair in which the invalid sits.
The subject of sickness was so widespread in the late 1800s that those years have been called the “pillow period” in Scandinavian painting. “Sickness, madness and death were the black angels who watched over my cradle,” Munch wrote.
“I paint not what I see, but what I saw,” Munch once said about his works. This is a situation recalled from several years earlier, to which he returned in the 1890s. The scene is strictly composed, and excludes anything irrelevant to the theme. The dark clothes and the noxious green of the bedroom walls intensify the mood of discomfort.
The painting was given to the National Gallery by Olaf Schou in 1910.
- Edvard Munch collection catalogue
The painting can be interpreted both as the depiction of a personal memory and as a symbolic representation of death. Biographically, the scene is viewed in connection with the loss of the artist’s sister Sofie, who died of tuberculosis in 1877 at the age of just fifteen. In his biographical writings, Munch recalls the moment his sister passed away: “Should she really die – in the last half hour she felt almost lighter – She tried to raise herself – pointed to the armchair that stood beside her – I would like to sit up she whispered …” (1890, MM N 3670). In the picture, the dying person is sitting in a chair far back in the depicted space. The chair is turned with its back to the viewer, almost entirely obscuring its occupant. The focus is on the family members. Close to the invalid’s chair stands an elderly man and a woman. The man has his hands clasped in prayer. In the foreground sits a young girl with bowed head, her folded hands resting in her lap. Just beyond her are two standing figures, a woman and a man. In the background to the left, another male figure stands with his back to the scene. The figures can be linked to Munch’s own family. His sister Inger is identifiable from her similarity to the figure in the portrait Inger in Black and Violet (Nasjonalmuseet, NG.M.00499), painted the previous year. But in Death in the Sickroom, Munch has transformed his personal memory into a scene that deals with death and grief on a general level. The identity of the dying person is hidden from us. The emphasis is on the reactions of the individuals in their encounter with death. Although they are together, each has to grapple with his or her grief alone. The colours intensify the picture’s profound symbolic impact. The expanses of uniform colour indicate stylistic links to symbolism and synthetism.
Death in the Sickroom is constructed like a narrative or a scene from a theatre play. The theatrical analogy was also noted by contemporary commentators, who pointed out similarities between the situation described in the picture and the play L’Intruse by the symbolist playwright Maurice Maeterlinck. A sensation when first performed in Paris in 1891, this drama was a source of inspiration to several visual artists (I. Langaard 1960, 153). When Munch’s painting was shown for the first time in Berlin in 1893, it had the title Ein Tod (A Death), and death in the family home is the theme of both Munch’s painting and Maeterlinck’s play. Munch knew of Maeterlinck, and shortly after producing the first sketches for Death in the Sickroom, common acquaintances conveyed to him an invitation from Maeterlinck to illustrate his play Pelléas et Mélisande (Eggum 1983, 109). The project was not pursued.
There are two main versions of Death in the Sickroom, and there has been some disagreement about which came first, the one now owned by the National Museum or the one in the collection of the Munch Museum (Woll M 330). It is known that a work with this composition was shown at Unter den Linden in Berlin in 1893, when it was listed as Ein Tod. The painting was known as Døden (Death) throughout the 1890s. According to Woll, however, it is uncertain which of the two versions was exhibited prior to 1902. According to the National Gallery’s catalogues, the picture was most probably painted in 1893. Later research has supported this dating, in part through the discovery of many changes and considerable overpainting done during the production of this version (Heller 1984; Plahter 1999). Others have questioned the claim, but in Woll’s catalogue of Munch’s paintings both versions are dated 1893 (Woll 2008, 311). In addition to the two paintings, there exist two drawings, one in pastels (Woll M 328), the other in charcoal (MM.T.02380), with similar compositions and the same title, also dated 1893, and a lithograph from the year 1896. A number of sketches relating to the theme have also survived. Olaf Schou purchased the painting from Munch’s 1910 exhibition at the Diorama venue in Kristiania, gifting it immediately to the National Gallery.
Vibeke Waallann Hansen The text was first published in Edvard Munch in the National Museum. A comprehensive overview (Oslo: National Museum, 2022).
- Creation date:
- (1893)
- Other titles:
- Døden i sykeværelset (NOR)
- Object type:
- Painting
- Materials and techniques:
- Tempera og fettstift på lerret
- Material:
- Canvas
- Dimensions:
- Width: 169.5 cm
- Height: 152.5 cm
- Keywords:
- Visual art
- Classification:
- 532 - Bildende kunst
- Inventory no.:
- NG.M.00940
- Cataloguing level:
- Single object
- Inscriptions:
- Primary, Signature, nede venstre: E. Munch.
- Acquisition:
- Gift from Olaf Schou 1910
- Provenance:
- [20] Donor/last owner, Olaf Schou
- Owner and collection:
- Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design, The Fine Art Collections
- Photo:
- Høstland, Børre
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Other works by Edvard Munch
The KissEdvard Munch1892
MoonlightEdvard Munch(1893)
Julius Meier-GraefeEdvard MunchAntagelig 1894
From Vestre AkerEdvard Munch1881
Young Woman Washing herselfEdvard Munch(1896)
MelancholyEdvard MunchAntagelig 1892
Bathing ManEdvard Munch(1918)
Flowery Meadow at VeierlandEdvard Munch(1887)
White NightEdvard MunchPåbegynt 1900, avsluttet 1901
Rue LafayetteEdvard Munch1891
Naked Woman in Front of a HouseEdvard Munch1883 eller 1884
Self-PortraitEdvard Munch1905
