LITERATURE: Arne Eggum: "Edvard Munch og hans modeller, 1912-1943" (Edvard Munch and his models), utstillingskatalog Edvard Munch og hans modeller, 1912-1943, Munch-museet 1988 (exhibition catalogue The Munch Museum 1988).

A common theme of Munch's art after he had completed the decorations for Kristiania University Festival Hall (1916), is the reconciliation between man and woman. In multiple pictures, in which Munch evidently uses models also for the male partner, man and woman look, face to face up towards the light. The impression is given of a union, a common goal, peace and friendliness.
Munch also repeats the motif "Madonna" and adds to it a whole new expression. In these versions it is as if the suffering and the holy aspect of it, is turned to vital satisfaction and joyful delight, as we see it in "Model Resting" (cat. 197) and "Reclining Nude" (cat. 198). Eggum, p. 80-81. (Eggum cat. 198: Reclining Nude II, lithograph, 1920).