In the popular imagination, Edvard Munch’s art evokes images of overly sensitive and fragile subjects; little did the people know that though he faced his fear and rendered their likeness on the canvas, not all of his life and art was gloom and angst. For instance, his portraits witnessed a wide circle of friends, and his Norwegian landscapes captured the beauty and Romantic spirit of the Nordic setting. Being the first Scandinavian visual artist to earn an international reputation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Munch had a productive career for more than six decades, and The Scream alone can’t define him. He was an excellent portraitist, landscape painter, and an exacting explorer of human passions who used universal themes of love, death, and spirituality in his artworks. Taking his emotions and pain in his art as he believed that it made his art only better, I am introducing you to one of the mature artworks of the artist, The Sun. But before we learn about it, let us read a few lines by the artist.
“I do not believe in an art which has not forced its way out through man’s need to open his heart. All art, literature, as well as music, must be brought about with our heart blood. Art is our heart blood.”
– Edvard Munch
A little backdrop to the painting starts with the Munch’s art style at its maturity. It was in the 1880s, when Munch grew into maturity, a period when art experienced radical change and experimentation. During this time, his art frequently addressed personal issues rather than political matters, but there were questions about the national identity. In the 1890s, Munch spent much of his time in abroad. After working in Berlin from 1892-95, he visited Paris in 1896, where he showcased his work in the new gallery owned by Siegfried Bing, L’Art Nouveau. And then, in 1907, Munch lived in the north sea town of Warnemünde, where he painted bathers and sea scenes. Between 1908 and 09, he took treatment for his nervous breakdown and severe alcoholism in Copenhagen at Dr. Daniel Jacobsen’s Clinic. Hence, Edvard had tremendous changes in his life from the 1880s to the 1900s till the artwork was composed in 1912 and they all affected the composition in a certain way. I will tell you how in the later section of this article. Now, since the artwork was on a large canvas, the artist hired fishermen to help him with it.
Coming to the chronology of Munch’s art, it has always been rooted in the philosophical and religious concerns of this time. When I talk about the Symbolist era, the belief in external realities was often undermined by the philosophic realism of Schopenhauer or modern psychology and the scientific revolution. Further, there was mysticism, which validated the works of the artists. Hence, during this time, Munch’s art evolved from Realism to Symbolism, but he also prepared for expressionism, which further strengthened the spirit of his paintings. However, after 1909, his artworks became increasingly naturalistic as he became more concerned with the public commissions he received.
The Sun by Edvard Munch synonymously shows the life and vision of the artist. He paints the Sun, keeping light being held as the most mystical force. It is an image of healing and eternity. The paintings from the Aula in the University are believed to have this Sun as the centerpiece, as Munch expected,
“A straight line leads from Spring to the Aula Paintings. The Aula Paintings are humanity as it strives towards the light, the sun, revelation, light in times of darkness.
Spring was the mortally ill girl’s longing for light and warmth, for life. The sun in the Aula was the sun shining in the window of Spring. It was Osvald’s sun (in Ibsen’s Ghosts).
In the identical chair in which I painted the sick girl, I and all those I loved, beginning with my mother, once sat winter after winter, sat and longed for the sun- until death took them away.”
The artwork shows an incandescent vision of light, which Edvard wanted throughout his career despite his wide association with the nocturnal melancholy and the anxieties in the abysses of love and loss of faith. Hence, the painting is for hope, or should I call the blissful drop, which can relieve anyone from any darkness around them.
The Sun by Edvard Munch is different from the other landscape paintings of the time. It is because of the fact that the German Volkish thinkers have always projected a longed relationship onto mythical and pre-industrial past, and so a landscape was always assumed to be national and spiritual. Munch was always affected by these attitudes, which mirror similar developments in Norway. Hence, this landscape is not a mere depiction of a sun rising above the water but a symbolic expression of how humans and nature are linked forever in the indissoluble cycle of life, death, and rebirth. Munch himself said,
“To me, it seemed as if becoming united with this life would be a rapturous delight, to be with the earth at all times fermenting, always warmed by the sun.”
As I previously stated the beginning of the artist’s mature style was integrated with the time when national identity was common in the artworks. This Norwegian landscape in addition to being stating a national identity is also a celebration of more particular properties and life-giving sustenance. Further, when Munch was recovering from a nervous breakdown and alcoholism in 1901, he became enclosed in his homeland. He said,
“Norway, where one day I must return since nature certainly is important to my art.”
The Sun by Edvard Munch was flanked by many allegories with conspicuously nationalistic overtones. Since the entire collection of the Aula paintings reflected
“humanity as it strives towards the light, the sun, revelation, light in times of darkness,”
The Sun remains the center of attraction. Being a nationalist artwork, it also forms a part of his own autobiography as Nolde referred especially at the time of his illness,
“The sun shone so brightly and beautifully. On the incline of a canal, its ground warmed by the sun’s rays, I lay down for many hours and days, seeking renewed strength, nursing.”
Resource.
Featured Image: The Sun by Edvard Munch; Edvard Munch, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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