Edvard Munch at the Museee d'Orsay

Since college, I’ve always been fascinated by Edvard Munch’s The Scream (1893). It’s a painting of someone desperate, screaming, and haunted by external forces. 

Artsper describes it as “a panic-stricken creature, simultaneously corpselike and reminiscent of a sperm or fetus, whose contours are echoed in the swirling lines of the blood-red sky.”

Nick Mafi wrote, “When he painted The Scream in 1893, Munch was inspired by “a gust of melancholy,” as he declared in his diary. It’s because of this, coupled with the artist’s personal life trauma, that the painting takes on a feeling of alienation, of the abnormal.”

I’m glad I went to see the exhibition in the Musee d’Orsay depicting the 60 years of his life from 1863 to1944. Over 150 pieces of his work are presented, including about sixty paintings, drawings, engravings, photographs, etchings, drypoints, lithographs, and woodcuts.

The exhibit is not organized chronologically. The curator focused more on the cycle of life, death and rebirth. 

Self Portrait with Burning Cigarette (1895) is the first painting on display

The Sick Child (1885-86), 15-year old bedridden sister Sophie who died from tuberculosis at 11

The Kiss (1897)

Vampire (1893), initially titled Love and Pain

The Girls on the Bridge (1899)

Evening on Karl Johan Street (1892(

Metabolism, Life and Death (1898)

Death of Marat (1907)

one of the paintings of his sister with his mother, who passed away earlier, standing

Self portrait

Study of Metabolism

Woodcut of Madonna (1894-95)

The Sun (1912), one of 11 paintings commissioned for Oslo University's ceremonial assembly hall

The show ended with Starry Night where he was alluded to Van Gogh in the birth of expressionism

Note, though, if you’re expecting to see The Scream, it’s not hanging. There are studies of it in this show:

If you’re in Paris and interested in modern expressionism, don’t miss this show, “Edvard Munch. A poem of life, love, and death,” which will run until January 22, 2023, at the Musee d’Orsay.