Norwegian 1863-1944 Edvard Munch Locations Edvard Munch (pronounced , December 12, 1863 ?C January 23, 1944) was a Norwegian Symbolist painter, printmaker, and an important forerunner of expressionistic art. His best-known composition, The Scream is one of the pieces in a series titled The Frieze of Life, in which Munch explored the themes of life, love, fear, death, and melancholy. Edvard Munch was born in a rustic farmhouse in the village of Adalsbruk in Loten, Norway to Christian Munch, the son of a prominent priest. Christian was a doctor and medical officer, who married Laura Cathrine Bjølstad, a woman half his age, in 1861. Edvard had an older sister, Johanne Sophie (born 1862), and three younger siblings: Peter Andreas (born 1865), Laura Cathrine (born 1867), and Inger Marie (born 1868). Both Sophie and Edvard appear to have gotten their art talent from their mother. Edvard Munch was related to painter Jacob Munch (1776?C1839) and historian Peter Andreas Munch (1810?C1863). The family moved to Kristiania (now Oslo) in 1864 when Christian Munch was appointed medical officer at Akershus Fortress. Edvard??s mother died of tuberculosis in 1868, as did Munch's favorite sister Johanne Sophie in 1877. After their mother's death, the Munch siblings were raised by their father and by their aunt Karen. Often ill for much of the winters and kept out of school, Edvard would draw to keep himself occupied. He also received tutoring from his school mates and his aunt. Christian Munch also instructed his son in history and literature, and entertained the children with vivid ghost stories and tales of Edgar Allan Poe. Christian??s positive behavior toward his children, however, was overshadowed by his morbid pietism. Munch wrote, ??My father was temperamentally nervous and obsessively religious??to the point of psychoneurosis. From him I inherited the seeds of madness. The angles of fear, sorrow, and death stood by my side since the day I was born.?? Christian reprimanded his children by telling them that their mother was looking down from heaven and grieving over their misbehavior. The oppressive religious milieu, plus Edvard??s poor health and the vivid ghost stories, helped inspire macabre visions and nightmares in Edvard, who felt death constantly advancing on him. One of Munch's younger sisters was diagnosed with mental illness at an early age. Of the five siblings only Andreas married, but he died a few months after the wedding. Munch would later write, "I inherited two of mankind's most frightful enemies??the heritage of consumption and insanity." Christian Munch??s military pay was very low, and his attempts at developing a private side practice failed, keeping his family in perrenial poverty. They moved frequently from one sordid flat to another. Munch??s early drawings and watercolors depicted these interiors, and the individual objects such as medicine bottles and drawing implements, plus some landscapes. By his teens, art dominated Munch??s interests. At thirteen, Munch has his first exposure to other artists at the newly formed Art Association, were he admired the work of the Norwegian landscape school, and where he returned to copy the paintings, and soon he began to paint in oils.  Related Paintings of Edvard Munch :. | Separate | Kiss | Landscape | The worker on the way home | Lady From the Sea |
Related Artists:
Moritz Kellerhoven
(1758-1830), sometimes referenced as Moritz Keller Hoven, was an Austrian painter and etcher. Kellerhoven was born in Duchy of Berg, and spent some time studying art in Antwerp, Vienna, and Italy. He specialized in painting portraits, including many royal subjects. Kellerhoven died in Munich in 1830.
Robert Cleveley
British, 1747-1809,was an English maritime painter. His father and twin brother (John Cleveley the Elder, c.1712?C1777, and John Cleveley the Younger, 1747?C1786) were also artists, with John the Younger (and possibly Robert too, to judge from his style) gaining some training in watercolours from Paul Sandby, previously a teacher at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. John the Elder had tried and failed to make a living in working in a dockyard, and so did Robert, as a caulker. However, mocked by other dockyard workers for wearing gloves whilst working, John did not enjoy his time there, giving it up and in 1770 volunteering for the navy as a clerk. His first service as a clerk was briefly under Captain William Locker (who acted as patron to artists probably known to John the Elder), then soon afterwards under Captain George Vandeput on his voyage in the Asia to the West Indies and North America, during which time Vandeput became a lifelong friend. The Asia returned in 1777, and from then to the end of his life Robert followed a double career as purser on board various ships stationed in the Home Fleet (though most probably exercising his functions through a deputy for some or all of the time) and as a marine painter. This meant he could exhibit his works as "Robert Cleveley of the Royal Navy". First exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1780, his specialism was naval battles (though he also produced pictures of royal naval occasions, such as his "View of the Fleet at Spithead Saluting George III at his Review in 1793", now at the National Maritime Museum) and many of his works were reproduced as engravings. Like his brother John, he also exploited their brother James' presence as a carpenter on Captain Cook's third voyage to gain access to art produced on the voyage and to produce art to cash in on the popular demand for South Sea images (eg a 1789 print of A view of Botany Bay). He did, however, still make occasional voyages with Vandeput, such as when he served as eassistant to the clerk of the kitchene in the royal entourage when the royal yacht Princess Augusta (under Vandeput) took Prince William Henry, later Duke of Clarence, to Hanover in July and August 1783.
Jacopo Torriti
Italian painter, Roman school active c. 1270-1300, Italian painter and mosaicist. Two mosaics in Rome are signed by him: one, on the apse of S Giovanni in Laterano, that once bore the date 1291 (or, according to some sources, 1290 or 1292); and another on the apse and triumphal arch of S Maria Maggiore, now replaced by a 19th-century restoration but at one time dated 1295 or 1296. Torriti is also known to have executed a mosaic for Arnolfo di Cambio's tomb of Pope Boniface VIII (1296; destr.; see ARNOLFO DI CAMBIO) in Old St Peter's, Rome. Torriti was active during the same period as Cimabue and Giotto, Pietro Cavallini and Arnolfo di Cambio, but his fame has been obscured by theirs, no doubt because of his closer links with Byzantine art. He was nevertheless one of the most important artists working in Rome during the papacy of Nicholas IV (1288-92) and was entrusted with some of the most prestigious commissions of the day.