Edvard Munch - His Life, Works and Art
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 Norwegian School. 1863.--Born December 12, 1863, at Hedemark ( Norway). Studied in Oslo, then made several extended visits to Paris, Italy, and Germany. Marked at the beginning by Impressionism and the School of Pont-Aven, he freed himself from their influence and obtained a great success in Germany. At Oslo, where he was to remain until his death, he executed several decorations and a great number of lithographs.
Munch himself, however, is quoted in every account of his life as saying that he owed more to another member of the older generation. This is the painter Heyerdahl, who is often more superficial than Krohg in his approach to subject matter, but who did possess a more brilliant technique. It is true that by the middle of the decade Munch had developed a free and very subtle handling of color. However, by this time he was approaching an attitude toward subject matter which was to lead him further and further from all his Norwegian contemporaries.
From the early eighties Munch's work showed qualities that were to persist or to continue to reappear in more developed forms. He assimilated ideas quickly and was dextrous with the brush. There is little awkwardness in the earliest works in which he follows the techniques of the older Norwegians. The paintings also show a sure sense of color that relies on limited combinations of tone for its effects. Far more significant for the later character of his art is the feeling that appears at the very start of his career for the relation of forms to the emotional significance of his subjects. The Hospital Ward is ascribed to his eighteenth year and in this subject, which he knew from accompanying his father on his visits, he already has the ability to compose in a manner that concentrates on an expressive disposition of the forms. The theme is the lonely convalescent in the foreground opposed to the reclining patient with the visitor in the background. The right angle of the first figure is repeated in reverse by the pair of figures, establishing a relationship corresponding to the theme. It is surprising to realize that the device of figures in contrasting postures which Munch used so often in his later work is present in this painting which in subject and technique is typical of the naturalistic style of the time.
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