Thorvald Torgersen

Thorvald Torgersen (1862--1943) was a friend and colleague of Munch from student days. He is depicted frontally, against a neutral background, without dramatising elements, but with a sensitive expression. The painting is one of the first in a large number of small portraits and studies of heads that Munch produced as a student in the years 1882--1885, most of them of fellow students, friends and family members. The old-masterish lighting gives the face a well-articulated plasticity with highlights and areas of modelled shadows. The muted colour scheme, dominated by black, brown and grey, brings out the nuances of the skin and the features of the face. The rugged, pastose execution echoes the typical painterly realism of the period.

Torgersen and Munch belonged to a group of younger artists who banded together in the autumn of 1882 to rent a large top-lit studio in the so-called "Pultosten" (a building officially known as Centralgården) at Stortingsplass in Kristiania (Oslo). Here they took part in "correction sessions" held by Christian Krohg and others.

On the occasion of Munch's 1927 exhibition in Berlin and Oslo, the painting was dated to 1880--1881, while in the National Gallery's catalogue of works, this was later revised to "presumed 1882". Munch writes about the work in the draft for an undated letter to Jens Thiis: "The portrait of Torgersen [...] was painted before Krohg joined us" (1933, emunch.no: MM N 3110). This confirms the assumption that the work was executed in 1882. This dating is also accepted by Eggum (1994) and Woll (2008, M 75). The work was purchased in 1938.

As an artist, Torgersen was interested in modern plein air painting and realist figure drawing. He debuted at the National Annual Autumn Exhibition in 1883, the same year as Munch, with an exterior and a portrait study. Munch painted several portraits of Torgersen. We know of a similar, probably lost, study in three-quarter profile from around the same time (1882, Woll 2008, M 76). A few years later, in 1886, Munch painted a larger half-length portrait, one of several depictions of fellow artists from the 1880s (Woll 2008, M 140).

Øystein Ustvedt

The text was first published in Edvard Munch in the National Museum. A comprehensive overview (Oslo: National Museum, 2022).

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