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).
