The subject for the lithography The Sick Child (1896) is taken from the painting with the same title dated 1885-86. The subject is considered an artistic turning point for Munch, with an expressive idiom and a subjective approach, and is the pivot point in the Munch biography, which often focuses on his family history, strongly marked by illness and death. Munch himself regarded the sick child as the origin of his further artistic work and practices.

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.