Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch was a Norwegian painter and printmaker whose work explored anxiety, love, illness, and death. Born in 1863 in Ådalsbruk and raised in Christiania (Oslo), he lost his mother and a sister to tuberculosis in childhood, experiences that marked his art. He trained in Oslo and Paris and developed a symbolist, emotionally charged style during years in Berlin, where his exhibitions provoked controversy. His best-known image, The Scream (1893), became an icon of modern art. After a breakdown and treatment in Copenhagen, he returned to Norway, working intensively at Kragerø on the University Aula murals and living at estates in Hvitsten and on Jeløya before settling at Ekely near Oslo in 1916, where he worked prolifically until his death in 1944. He influenced Expressionism across Europe.