Munch’s aunt was responsible for encouraging him in his artistic career after his mother and sister died when he was young. Similarly with his father being a doctor, Munch was further exposed to death and dying. The tragic events of his early life undoubtedly affected Munch throughout his life, certainly he found it difficult to form relationships with women. Munch is regarded as being an Expressionist artist, as he manages to convey extreme negative emotions, especially his futility of life and existence.

‘THE SCREAM’ EDVARD MUNCH (1893)

At first glance, I am immediately drawn to the emaciated meltin

When I look at this painting the perspective leads the eye towards the Stortinget, positioned on a horizontal axis. Here the curvaceous streaks of the sky lead me to the street where a few people enter. Our eyes flow over this and are redirected in a clockwise motion into the canvas along the vertical buildings on the left, used as a cut-off, and back to the dominant solid structure of the Stortinget. What the object in front of the Stortinget, to the right of the canvas, actually is, is unimportant as its foreboding shape is merely used as an auxiliary to lead our eye onto the solitary, almost silhouetted figure walking up the boulevard against the flow of pedestrians. It is possibly about to collapse on him.

Munch is withdrawn, reinforcing the isolation of him at that moment in his life and possibly throughout his life. He perhaps sees the outside world as alien places populated by ghostly figures, out to get him. It is evident that Munch views a city as a metropolis that devours souls, almost like a centre of anxiety, which he is afraid to be part of. It is little wonder why this particular painting has been grouped in Munch’s series, ‘Fear of Life’.

Some topics in this essay:
Edvard Munch, Karl Johan, EDVARD MUNCH, Blossoms Dies’, Scream’ Munch, Edvard Munch’s, Karl Johan’, Life’ Munch’s, Munch INTRODUCTION, edvard munch, ‘the scream’, karl johan’, ‘fear life’, ‘evening karl johan’, middle class, munch’s mind, complementary colours, throughout life, ‘evening karl, anonymous figures, Critical Essay, edvard munch 1892, painting abstract representational, palette complementary colours, 1893 ‘evening karl,