''Madonna'' is the usual title given to several versions of a composition by the
Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
*Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
*Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including the ...
expressionist
Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...
painter
Edvard Munch
Edvard Munch ( , ; 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter. His best known work, ''The Scream'' (1893), has become one of Western art's most iconic images.
His childhood was overshadowed by illness, bereavement and the dr ...
showing a bare-breasted half-length female figure created between 1892 and 1895 using
oil paint
Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment suspended in a drying oil, commonly linseed oil. The viscosity of the paint may be modified by the addition of a solvent such as turpentine or white spirit, and varn ...
on canvas. He also produced versions in
print form.
[Bischoff, Ulrich]
''Edvard Munch: 1863-1944''
p. 42, Taschen, 2000, , 9783822859711
The version owned by the
Munch Museum
Munch Museum ( no, Munch-museet), marketed as Munch (stylised as MUNCH) since 2020, is an art museum in Bjørvika, Oslo, Norway dedicated to the life and works of the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch.
The museum was originally located at Tøyen, ...
of
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
was stolen in 2004 but recovered two years later. Two other versions are owned by the
National Gallery of Norway
The National Gallery ( no, Nasjonalgalleriet) is a gallery in Oslo, Norway. Since 2003 it is administratively a part of the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design.
, the admission cost is 100 Norwegian kroner.
History
It was establishe ...
and the
Kunsthalle Hamburg
The Hamburger Kunsthalle is the art museum of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Germany. It is one of the largest art museums in the country. The museum consists of three connected buildings, dating from 1869 (main building), 1921 (Kuppelsaa ...
. Another one is owned by businessman Nelson Blitz, and one was bought in 1999 by
Steven A. Cohen
Steven A. Cohen (born June 11, 1956) is an American hedge fund manager and owner of the New York Mets of Major League Baseball since September 14, 2020, owning roughly 97.2% of the team. He is the founder of hedge fund Point72 Asset Manageme ...
.
The lithographic print of the composition is distinguished by a decorative border depicting wriggling sperm, with a fetus-like figure in its bottom left corner. The 1893 version of the painting had a frame with similar decoration, but it was later removed and lost.
The print also exists in a number of different versions.
Title
Although it is a highly unusual representation, this painting might be of the
Virgin Mary
Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...
. Whether the painting is specifically intended as a representation of Mary is disputed. Munch used more than one title, including both ''Loving Woman'' and ''Madonna''.
Munch is not famous for religious artwork and was not known as a Christian. The affinity to Mary might as well be intended nevertheless, as an emphasis on the beauty and perfection of his friend
Dagny Juel-Przybyszewska
Dagny Juel-Przybyszewska (8 June 1867 – 5 June 1901) was a Norwegian writer, famous for her liaisons with various prominent artists, and for the dramatic circumstances of her death. She was the model for some of Edvard Munch's paintings. She ...
, the model for the work, and an expression of his worship of her as an ideal of womanhood.
Interpretations
Werner Hofmann suggests that the painting is a "strange devotional picture glorifying decadent love. The cult of the strong woman who reduces man to subjection gives the figure of woman monumental proportions, but it also makes a demon of her." Sigrun Rafter, an art historian at the Oslo National Gallery suggests that Munch intended to represent the woman in the life-making act of intercourse, with the sanctity and sensuality of the union captured by Munch. The usual golden halo of Mary has been replaced with a red halo symbolizing the love and pain duality. The viewer's viewpoint is that of the man who is making love with her. Even in this unusual pose, she embodies some of the key elements of canonical representations of the Virgin: she has a quietness and a calm confidence about her. Her eyes are closed, expressing modesty, but she is simultaneously lit from above; her body is seen, in fact, twisting away from the light so as to catch less of it, even while she faces it with her eyes. These elements suggest aspects of conventional representations of the
Annunciation
The Annunciation (from Latin '), also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord, is the Christian celebration of the biblical tale of the announcement by the ange ...
. Robert Melville states that the image portrays "ecstasy and pain in the act of love". Commenting on the lithograph version, he says that the "decorative border
scomposed of sperms trailing long wriggly filaments which meander round three sides of the image and end in a foetus-like pendant." Feminist critic
Carol Duncan
Carol Greene Duncan is a Marxist-feminist scholar known as a pioneer of ‘new art history’, a social-political approach to art, who is recognized for her work in the field of Museum Studies, particularly her inquiries into the role that muse ...
is inclined to interpret the figure as a ''
femme fatale
A ''femme fatale'' ( or ; ), sometimes called a maneater or vamp, is a stock character of a mysterious, beautiful, and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, deadly traps. She is an archetype of ...
'',
Other critics have also seen the portrayal of the woman as implicitly paradoxical. According to Peter Day, it is a potentially vampiric figure.
Day identifies a "dichotomy" between the haunting image of a monstrous mother and of female subjectivity and self-sufficiency.
Painting materials
The painting in Munch Museum Oslo was investigated by British and Norwegian scientists. They were able to identify the following pigments:
chrome yellow
__NOTOC__
Chrome yellow is a yellow pigment in paints using monoclinic lead(II) chromate (PbCrO4). It occurs naturally as the mineral crocoite but the mineral ore itself was never used as a pigment for paint. After the French chemist Louis Vau ...
,
Prussian blue
Prussian blue (also known as Berlin blue, Brandenburg blue or, in painting, Parisian or Paris blue) is a dark blue pigment produced by oxidation of ferrous ferrocyanide salts. It has the chemical formula Fe CN)">Cyanide.html" ;"title="e(Cyani ...
,
yellow ochre
Ochre ( ; , ), or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the colours produced ...
,
charcoal black
Soot ( ) is a mass of impure carbon particles resulting from the incomplete combustion of hydrocarbons. It is more properly restricted to the product of the gas-phase combustion process but is commonly extended to include the residual pyrolysed ...
, artificial
ultramarine
Ultramarine is a deep blue color pigment which was originally made by grinding lapis lazuli into a powder. The name comes from the Latin ''ultramarinus'', literally 'beyond the sea', because the pigment was imported into Europe from mines in Afgh ...
and
vermilion
Vermilion (sometimes vermillion) is a color, color family, and pigment most often made, since ancient history, antiquity until the 19th century, from the powdered mineral cinnabar (a form of mercury sulfide, which is toxic) and its correspondi ...
.
Development
The version in the National Museum of Norway has some lines which suggested that there was an overpainted
underdrawing
Underdrawing is a preparatory drawing done on a painting ground before paint is applied, for example, an imprimatura or an underpainting. Underdrawing was used extensively by 15th century painters like Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden. These ...
. There are sketches showing Munch trying out poses. Conservator Thierry Ford and photographer Børre Høstland at the Museum used
infrared reflectography
Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...
to show layers beneath the painting's surface. The underdrawing shows that Munch originally had the subject's arms hanging down as in a conventional portrait. The presence of the underdrawings suggests that the National Museum's painting is the first one. The painting has undergone research and conservation ahead of its display in the Munch Room of a new NM building, opening in Oslo in June 2022.
Theft
On March 29, 1990 a version of ''Madonna'' and three other artworks were stolen from the Gallery Kunsthuset AS in Oslo. On June 22, 1990 the police located three of the artworks in a private home in Drammen, Norway. The fourth had been located the previous day in a private home in nearby Sande. During the court trials,
Ole Christian Bach
Ole Christian Bach (31 May 1957 – 11 July 2005) was a Norwegian con artist.
Bach came into the spotlight in 1987 after organizing an illegal pyramid scheme where many investors and banks lost a total of 40 million NOK. Bach fled and was arreste ...
was suspected of having organized both the theft and the handling. In September 1992, Bach was sentenced to prison for seven months for
handling stolen goods
Possession of stolen goods is a crime in which an individual has bought, been given, or acquired stolen goods.
In many jurisdictions, if an individual has accepted possession of goods (or property) and knew they were stolen, then the individua ...
.
On Sunday, 22 August 2004, the
Munch Museum
Munch Museum ( no, Munch-museet), marketed as Munch (stylised as MUNCH) since 2020, is an art museum in Bjørvika, Oslo, Norway dedicated to the life and works of the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch.
The museum was originally located at Tøyen, ...
's versions of ''Madonna'' and ''
The Scream
''The Scream'' is a composition created by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch in 1893. The agonized face in the painting has become one of the most iconic images of art, seen as symbolizing the anxiety of the human condition. Munch's work, including ...
'' were stolen by masked men wielding
firearms
A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions).
The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes c ...
. The thieves forced the museum guards to lie down on the floor while they snapped the cable securing the paintings to the wall and escaped in a black
Audi A6
The Audi A6 is an executive car made by the German automaker Audi. Now in its fifth generation, the successor to the Audi 100 is manufactured in Neckarsulm, Germany, and is available in saloon and estate configurations, the latter marketed by Aud ...
station wagon
A station wagon ( US, also wagon) or estate car ( UK, also estate), is an automotive body-style variant of a sedan/saloon with its roof extended rearward over a shared passenger/cargo volume with access at the back via a third or fifth door ( ...
, which police later found abandoned.
Both paintings were recovered by the Oslo Police on 31 August 2006. The following day Ingebjørg Ydstie, director of the Munch Museum, said the condition of the paintings was much better than expected and that the damage, including a 2.5 cm hole in the ''Madonna'', could be repaired.
In 2008
Indemitsu Petroleum Norge AS committed an endowment of 4 million
Norwegian krone
The krone (, abbreviation: kr (also NKr for distinction); code: NOK), plural ''kroner'', is currency of the Kingdom of Norway (including Svalbard). Traditionally known as the Norwegian crown in English. It is nominally subdivided into 100 '' ...
towards the conservation, research and presentation of ''Madonna'' and ''The Scream''.
Notability
In 2010 a hand-colored version of the print sold for £1.25 million by
Bonhams
Bonhams is a privately owned international auction house and one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. It was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son & Neale. This brought to ...
, London, becoming the most expensive print ever sold in Britain.
On 15 February 2013 four Norwegian postage stamps were published by
Posten Norge
Posten Norge () is the name of the Norwegian postal service. The company, owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications had a monopoly until 2016 on distribution of letters weighing less than 50g throughout the country. There a ...
, reproducing images from Munch's art to recognise the 150th anniversary of his birth. A close-up of the Madonna's head from one of the lithographic versions was used for the design of the 17 Norwegian krone stamp.
Munch’s “The Scream” on a Postage Stamp
/ref>
References
External links
*
in the MoMA Online Collection
California State University
Edvard Munch, ''Madonna'', Munch Museum Oslo
at ColourLex
{{Edvard Munch
Symbolist paintings
1895 paintings
Paintings by Edvard Munch
Stolen works of art
Recovered works of art
Nude art
Paintings in the Hamburger Kunsthalle
Paintings in the collection of the National Gallery (Norway)