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Oil painting on canvas of a snowy, rocky, and hilly landscape abutting a deep blue sea.

Oil painting of a wintery landscape. Snow (largely white though with shades of blue, purple, and green throughout) makes up most of the landscape. Rocks in varying sizes and shades of black are dotted across the snow becoming more formless as the landscape stretches into the background. A white hill reaches towards the sky in the background with dots of varying colors across the slop. The dark blue-green sea flows between the snowy landscape and distant hills with darker blue and black lines representing waves. The slim strip of sky above is streaked with shades of white and blue.

Gallery Text

Early exhibition titles suggest that Winter Landscape was painted near Kragerø on the southeastern coast of Norway. Curtailing his travel because of World War I, Munch produced a few related paintings there that same year. In this, the largest example, the artist presents more than a view onto his native landscape. Given the canvas’s size, the rock formations, depicted using multicolored stains, and the contrasting snow, rendered in thick blue, white, and green impasto, envelop the viewer.

In his diaries that year, Munch noted the anthropo­morphic quality of the landscape itself: “The stones protruded above the water, mystically like sea people . . . the dark blue sea rose and fell—sighed among the stones.” Munch’s success in Germany led to his role as the “spiritual godfather” of modern art in that country, and in his lifetime his work was understood as a precursor to expressionism.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2012.257
People
Edvard Munch, Norwegian (Loiten, Norway 1863 - 1944 Ekely, Norway)
Title
Winter Landscape
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1915
Culture
Norwegian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/336770

Location

Location
Level 1, Room 1440, Modern and Contemporary Art, Secessionism: Munich, Vienna, Berlin
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Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
139.1 x 173.4 cm (54 3/4 x 68 1/4 in.)
frame: 148.3 x 182.2 cm (58 3/8 x 71 3/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.r.: E Munch 1915

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
J. B. Stang, Oslo (1915-1950) (by descent to?); his daughter Heddy Astrup (1951-before 1978). Philip and Lynn Straus, New York (1982-2004; Lynn Straus, New York (2004 -2012), gift; to Busch-Reisinger Museum/Harvard Art Museums, 2012.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Gift of Lynn G. Straus in memory of Philip A. Straus
Accession Year
2012
Object Number
2012.257
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • W. Wartmann, Ausstellung Edvard Munch, exh. cat., Kunsthaus Zürich (Zurich, Switzerland, 1922), p. 6, cat. no 50, repr. as Abb. XIV
  • W. Wartmann, Edvard Munch 1863-1944, exh. cat., Kunsthaus Zürich (Zurich, 1952), no. 58, pl. X
  • Arne Eggum, Edvard Munch: Symbols and Images, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C., 1978), p. 71, 260; cat. no. 59, ill. (b&w)
  • Elizabeth Prelinger, Guide to the Exhibition "Edvard Munch: Master Printmaker. Prints from The Philip and Lynn Straus Collection", brochure, Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1983), checklist
  • Gerd Woll, Edvard Munch: Complete Paintings, Thames & Hudson (London, 2009), vol. 3, no. 1127, repr., p. 1674
  • "Lugt 5642: Philip Albert Straus et Lynn Gross Straus", Les Marques de Collections de Dessins & d'Estampes, Fondation Custodia (June 2020), http://www.marquesdecollections.fr/detail.cfm/marque/13157, accessed July 20, 2020

Exhibition History

  • Edvard Munch 1863-1944, Kunsthaus Zürich, 06/22/1952 - 08/17/1952
  • Edvard Munch: Symbols and Images, National Gallery of Art, 11/11/1978 - 02/19/1979
  • Edvard Munch: Master Printmaker, Harvard University Art Museums, Busch-Reisinger Museum, 10/06/1983 - 11/27/1983; Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, 01/29/1984 - 03/25/1984
  • 32Q: 1440 Secessionism: Munich, Vienna, Berlin (Expressionism), Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/22/2015 - 02/10/2025

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Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu