Auction Monday December 11 2017 at 18:00
Munch, Edvard(1863-1944)
The Sick Child

Intaglio print printed in black on heavy cream paper
Sheet: 506x397 mm Image: 361x269 mm
Signed in pencil lower right: E. Munch

Printer's signature in pencil lower left: O Felsing Berlin gdr.

1894
Woll 7 c) VI.

Estimate
NOK 500,000–700,000USD 60,700–85,000EUR 51,500–72,000

Auctioned Monday December 11 2017 at 18:00

Hammer price NOK 350,000

LITERATURE: Sidsel Helliesen: “Technical aspects of Munch’s prints and drawings», Edvard Munch Works on Paper, exhibition catalogue Munch Museum 2.11.2013-02.03.2014, Oslo 2013, p. 32-57.

The relationship between Sophie and Edvard, the two eldest children of the Munch family, was particularly close. … Sophie’s death at the age of fifteen made a deep and lasting impression on her younger brother, which would later be reflected in his art. The painting “The Sick Child” (1885-6, Woll M 130) was an artistic turning point for Munch. With this work he broke with detail-oriented realism and created a distinctive, expressive visual language of his own. “In the Sick Child I broke new ground – it was a breakthrough in my art. Most of what I did later had its birth in this painting”, wrote Munch in the pamphlet “Livsfrisens tilblivelse” (1928). The central position of this motif in Munch’s oeuvre is underlined by the existence of an additional five painted as well as three printed versions – two etchings … and one lithograph … . P. 40.