Auction Thursday December 12 2013 at 15:00
Munch, Edvard(1863-1944)
Home from School

Watercolour and tusche on thin cream paper

Sheet: 283x393 mm
Unsigned
Ca. 1916-20.

Estimate
NOK 200,000–300,000

Auctioned Thursday December 12 2013 at 15:00

Hammer price NOK 200,000

LITERATURE: Gerd Woll: Edvard Munch Complete Paintings, London 2009.

In 1916 Edvard Munch settled at Ekely in the outskirts of Kristiania. His choice of subjects changed, and he often concentrated his artistic efforts towards daily life that he could observe around Ekely and in and around Kristiania.

It is difficult to decide exactly wherefrom this motif is seen, but the building in the background resembles the Old Aker Church, a medieval church which Munch had made into a subject for artistic treatment already at a young age in 1881 and 1882 (see Woll cat.no. 1 etc.). In drawings and watercolours he had even earlier than the first paintings, fixed this motif with the church onto paper.

There is something typically «Munchian» about the sharp perspective in this watercolour. With a few lines only, he manages to create great depth in the picture. From this background the children seem to pour out into the foreground. In an unorderly multitude of postures from ordinary walk to top speed, the children seem to rejoice of being free from school.

The flock of schoolchildren in lively and colourful motion, resembles other kindred themes in Munch???s work, for instance Workers Returning Home from 1920 (Woll 1361). Munch was at the time interested in subjects which expressed movement.