Auction Wednesday December 9 2015 at 15:00
Munch, Edvard(1863-1944)
The Girls on the Bridge

Colour woodcut printed in blue and zincograph printed in green, yellow and red on medium thin cream paper
Sheet: 652x558 mm Image: 499x430 mm
Signed in pencil lower right: Edv Munch

1918
Woll 628.

Estimate
NOK 2,000,000–3,000,000

Auctioned Wednesday December 9 2015 at 15:00

Unsold

LITERATURE: Gerd Woll: Edvard Munch – Complete Paintings, Oslo 2008.

In 1889 Edvard Munch visited for the first time Åsgårdstrand, as his family rented a house for the summer. He often came to spend time during summer at this little place by the Kristiania fjord, and in the summer of 1898 he bought a small house there.

Many other artists also spent summer in Åsgårdstrand. For instance Hans Heyerdahl (1857-1913) whom Edvard Munch had been inspired by in his early years as an artist, and whom was later inspired by Munch, spent time here almost every summer from 1885 until his death. He was also an artist who made the Kiøsterud mansion and the imposing group of trees subject for artistic rendering.

Munch painted the subject from a summer evening The Girls on the Bridge for the first time in 1901.

Munch painted many versions of this subject (The Girls on the Bridge), with some variations, see cat. nos. 539, 1715, 1632, 484, 639 and 540 as well as versions with young women on the bridge, see cat. no. 541.Munch also produced graphic versions, such as a woodcut in 1905 (Woll 271) and a combination of woodcut and lithograph (lithographic zinc plates!) in 1918 (Woll 628 and 629). P. 522.

Edvard Munch said himself:

“Walking here (in Åsgårdstrand) is like walking among my pictures. I get such a desire to paint when walking in Åsgårdstrand.”