Thorvald Løchen

  • Artist: Edvard Munch
  • Creation date: 1918
  • Object type: Painting

Not on display

Artist/producer

Edvard Munch

Visual artist, Painter, Graphic artist, Photographer, Drawing artist

Born 12.12.1863 in Løten, Hedmark, death 23.01.1944 in Oslo

Edvard Munch worked as an artist for over sixty years. He was creative, ambitious and hardworking. He produced nearly two thousand paintings, hundreds of graphic motifs and thousands of drawings. In addition, he wrote poems, prose and diaries. The Scream, Madonna, Death in the Sickroom and the other symbolist works from the 1890s have made him one of the most famous artists of our time.

"Don't become an artist!"

Edvard wanted to become an artist early on, and there was no doubt that he had talent. But his father refused to allow him to follow his dream, so Edvard began studying engineering. But already after one year he chose to defy his father, and switched from engineering college to the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry in Kristiania, now Oslo.

A talented and provocative bohemian

It was obvious to everyone in the Norwegian art community that the young man showed rare talent. In 1883, at the age of 20, he debuted at Høstutstillingen (The Autumn Exhibition). In 1886, Munch became acquainted with author and anarchist Hans Jæger, a leading figure in the Kristiania bohemian community. The bohemian community convinced Munch that the arts had to renew themselves to reach people and to have relevance in their lives. In the same year he exhibited the painting The Sick Child. This generated debate!

Courage led to breakthrough

Some acclaimed The Sick Child a work of genius, while others deemed it unfinished and unworthy of exhibition. Today it is considered to mark Munch's breakthrough. It was here that demonstrated the independence and willingness to break fresh ground.

From this point until his final brush strokes, his artistic practice can be summed up in just word: experimentation. Munch did not care about established "rules" for so-called good art. His techniques in both painting and graphics were innovative.

From people's emotional life to agriculture and landscape

Henrik Ibsen's plays about humanity's existential challenges inspired Munch. Themes such as death, love, sexuality, jealousy and anxiety were central to his early images. Some themes sprang from personal experience. For example, Death in the Sickroom and The Sick Child are linked to his memory of his mother and sister's illnesses and early deaths.

After 1910, Munch chose a quieter and secluded life. At his own farms at Ekely in Oslo and in Hvitsten, he found entirely new motifs, such as agriculture, working life and landscapes. Man in the Cabbage Field is a typical example from this period.

Work info

Bestandskatalog:
Edvard Munch bestandskatalog
Bestandskatalogtekster:

While the composition, colour scheme and painterly execution of this work are all typical of Munch's later full-length portraits, the treatment of space and the posture are unusual. The tilting of the floor creates a dramatic effect that is reinforced by the picture's vertical divisions. This and the suggestion in the figure of active movement indicate a willingness to try out new solutions within an established form. The hand holding the cigarette seems to allude to Munch's earlier Self-Portrait with Cigarette and the portrait The Frenchman (The Nathional Museum, NG.M.00470, NG.M.00811). It suggests sympathy for the bohemian lifestyle.

Munch worked with the full-length portrait throughout his career. The painting of Løchen belongs to a phase when Munch was receiving an increasing number of commissions from well-situated Norwegians: politicians, lawyers, doctors and people in the public sphere. This work was commissioned by Thorvald Løchen, who at that point was governor of the county of Nordre Trondhjem (from 1902). Løchen's wife, Ingeborg Motzfeldt Løchen, later wrote an account of her contacts with Munch, in which she states that it was she who initiated the commission (Løchen 1946). The order was confirmed by Løchen in a letter from 1917 (emunch.no: MM K 671). On this basis, the painting is dated to 1917 (Woll 2008 B, M 1256), although the signature says 1918. In this case, however, there is no reason to reassess the signature. One of Munch's friends, the doctor and politician Karl Wefring, mentions the work in a letter dated 1918: "Have been down to Hamar to look at your picture of Thorvald Løchen. He made the right choice in my opinion, and they are very pleased with the picture. They also have the satisfaction that the art connoisseurs do not snort at it" (1918, letter, emunch.no: MM K 1214).

Thorvald Løchen (1861--1943) had studied law and could already look back on a long career in the civil service when the painting was done. In 1916 he became county governor in Hedmark. He became acquainted with Munch in the 1880s via his brother, the painter and actor Kalle Løchen (1865--1893), a close colleague and friend of Munch from his student years in Kristiania. An unsigned version of the painting is now in the Munch Museum, as is another portrait of the same person (1917, Woll 2008, M 1254, M 1255).

The work was bequeathed to the museum by Thorvald Løchen and his wife in 1946, together with a painting by Kalle Løchen, The Studio at Modum (1883, NG.M.02081).

Øystein Ustvedt

The text was first published in Edvard Munch in the National Museum. A comprehensive overview (Oslo: National Museum, 2022).
Creation date:
1918
Other titles:
Thorvald Løchen (NOR)
Object type:
Materials and techniques:
Olje på lerret
Material:
Dimensions:
  • Width: 120 cm
  • Height: 200 cm
Keywords:
Classification:
Motif - type:
Inventory no.:
NG.M.02080
Cataloguing level:
Single object
Litteratur:
  • Hansen, Vibeke Waallann, et al. Edvard Munch i Nasjonalmuseet: en samlet oversikt. Redigert av Ustvedt, Øystein, et al. Oslo: Nasjonalmuseet, 2022. kat.nr. 53.
  • Woll, Gerd. Edvard Munch: samlede malerier: B. 3: 1909-1920. Oslo: Cappelen Damm, 2008. kat.nr. 1256.
  • Eggum, Arne. Edvard Munch. Portretter. Utstillingskatalog. Oslo: Munchmuseet og Labyrinth Press, 1994. 193–4.
  • Nasjonalgalleriet, red. Norske malerier. Katalog. Oslo, 1992. 345.
  • Nasjonalgalleriet, red. Katalog over norsk malerkunst: med 158 illustrasjoner. Oslo, 1968. kat.nr. 1304.
  • Nasjonalgalleriet, red. Katalog over norsk malerkunst. Oslo, 1950. kat.nr. 1085.
  • Løchen, Ingeborg Motzfeldt. «Mine samtaler med Edvard Munch», i «Edvard Munch som vi kjente ham», 1946. 64.
Part of exhibition:
Edvard Munch, 1918
Inscriptions:
Primary, Signature and dating, oppe høyre: E. Munch. 1918
Acquisition:
Bequeathed by Ingeborg and Torvald Løchen, accessioned 1946
Provenance:
[40] Previous owner, Ingeborg Løchen
[40] Previous owner, Thorvald Løchen
Owner and collection:
Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design, The Fine Art Collections
Photo:
Børre Høstland

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