The figure stands with arms held out to the sides, head bent forward, and legs slightly apart. The paint is applied in bold, sweeping curves, in a manner that suggests spontaneity. Colouristically, the yellow-green tones of the body form an effective contrast to the blue-green hues of the water. The depiction of a naked, muscular man in the open air set against the clear, rippling surface of the sea reflects the vitalist current in the art and culture of the day.
Bathing Man was probably painted at Hvitsten. The probable location has been identified as a large bay facing the fjord, not far from the artist's house (Flaatten 2016, 160). In the late autumn of 1910, Munch purchased Nedre Ramme, a property at Hvitsten on the Oslo Fjord. Around 1900, Hvitsten began to gain popularity as a seaside resort, with bathing huts and other sea bathing facilities added to its attractive beaches and rocky shoreline. In a letter to Aunt Karen (Karen Bjølstad), Munch describes the place as "... almost the most beautiful along the entire coast" (emunch.no: MM N 964). The model for *Bathing Man *was Claude Beriot, who had previously modelled for Gustav Vigeland. Beriot was also a dancer, hence his well-trained physique (Flaatten 2016, 160).
Munch's interest in bathers can be traced back to the mid-1890s, as exemplified by the National Museum's Bathing Boys from 1894--1895 (The National Museum, NG.M.01866). Munch's earliest works on this theme show women sunbathing and children playing by the sea. In 1907--1908, during his stay at Warnemünde on the Baltic Sea in north Germany, his approach to the subject changed, becoming more intense. There he produced a number of paintings of tall, naked men on the sunny beach and/or out in the water. The painting is unsigned and has no date marking, but has been dated on the basis of its similarities to another a work in wider format with the same figure and background, signed 1918 (Woll 2008, M 1283). The work was first shown at Munch's 1921 exhibition at Blomqvist in Kristiania. In the late 1920s, Munch painted a further version, this time as one section of a larger, three-part composition with a number of figures (Woll 2008, M 1577). He produced a smaller version with the same motif (Woll M 1578). In addition, there is a large, undated drawing of similar composition in the Munch Museum (The Munch Museum, MM.T.01545). Munch gifted the painting to the National Gallery on the occasion of its major retrospective of his work in 1927. The generous gift may have been an attempt to remedy the museum's lack of representative works from Munch's later phase. Bathing Man is one of few works by Munch in the National Museum that still has its original frame. With its distinctive gold and blue colouration, which reflect the hues of the body and the sea, it is clear that the frame was conceived together with the painting.
Wenche Volle
The text was first published in Edvard Munch in the National Museum. A comprehensive overview (Oslo: National Museum, 2022).
