Auction Saturday December 16 2023 at 15:00
Munch, Edvard(1863-1944)
Alpha and Omega (1908-09)

Lithographs printed in black on heavy white paper
All sheets: 630x465 mm
All 18 images signed in pencil lower right: E Munch /Edv Munch

Complete portfolio with 18 images, two vignettes, a title page and a table of content, all of which are litographs. In addition there are two pages of Norwegian and French text printed in ordinary letterpress. The prints are put together in a portfolio with a bright red cover.

The idea for the "Alpha and Omega" series was conceived in the mid-1890s, when Munch made several drawings with similar subjects. In 1903 he exhibited a series of drawings called "The First Human Beings", and Schiefler was aware that Munch intended to turn them into a series of prints. It was not until after Munch entered Dr. Jacobson's clinic in Copenhagen in the autumn of 1908 that he took up this idea and developed it into a complete series, executed in lithographic crayon on paper. The drawings where then transferred to lithographic stones and printed at Dansk Reproduktionsanstalt in Copenhagen.

Woll 336-357

Woll 336-339 on the same sheet (these were originally on the same stone)
Woll 336 Title Page
Woll 337 Table of Contents
Woll 338 Vignette: Satyr's head
Woll 339 Vignette: Amaryllis
Woll 340 Alpha and Omega
Woll 341 Moonrise
Woll 342 The Forest
Woll 343 The Cloud
Woll 344 The Serpent is Killed
Woll 345 The Bear
Woll 346 The Tiger
Woll 347 The Tiger and the Bear
Woll 348 Omega and the Flower
Woll 349 Omega's Eyes
Woll 350 Omega and the Deer
Woll 351 Omega and the Pig
Woll 352 Omega Weeping
Woll 353 Omega's Flight
Woll 354 Alpha's Progeny
Woll 355 Alpha's Despair
Woll 356 Omega's Death
Woll 357 Alpha's Death

Estimate
NOK 2,500,000–3,500,000USD 232,600–325,600EUR 213,000–298,300

Auctioned Saturday December 16 2023 at 15:00

Unsold