Munch, van Gogh, and the Albertina

The Scream, E. Munch

I was walking down the road with two friends when the sun set; suddenly, the sky turned as red as blood. I stopped and leaned against the fence, feeling unspeakably tired. Tongues of fire and blood stretched over the bluish black fjord. My friends went on walking, while I lagged behind, shivering with fear.  

—Edvard Munch, explaining the breakdown that inspired The Scream

You know of Edvard Munch probably for one reason: a painting commonly called “The Scream.” If you know more than that, you knew more than I, for sure. I was eager to attend an exhibition of Edvard Munch’s work in Vienna for no better reason than where it was held. The Albertina Museum is one of the Habsburg palaces and holds an impressive collection of art by the world’s most renowned artists. Also, the Albertina is restored and itself an exhibition of the opulence enjoyed by the Habsburg crew. Munch’s work was there, and I was reminded of the “two birds…” adage.

Ballroom at the Albertina

 The building called “Albertina” (so named in 1921) was originally constructed on the site of one of the few remaining portions of the original fortification known as the Augustinian Bastion. Refurbished at least twice, it was acquired by and renamed for the husband of Maria Christina, a daughter of Austrian Empress Maria Theresa. While living in Brussels, Duke Albert, the governor of the Habsburg Netherland, amassed one of the world’s greatest collections of “old master prints,” (which are now stored at the Albertina, but are considered too old and too fragile to display and are rarely seen by the visiting general public). As a result of drawing the short straw with regard to WWI, the ownership of the Albertina and the massive collection of over 1,000,000 pieces of art were transferred from the Habsburgs to the Austrian government in 1919.

Man and Woman, E. Munch

Edvard Munch, (pronounced “moonk”) was born in 1863 in Norway and died there in 1944. His art was profoundly influenced by family misfortune, his mental illness, and his excessive dependence on alcohol. “The Scream” was one piece in a series of paintings known as “The Frieze of Life”. With titles including, Melancholy, Anxiety, and Jealousy, it is not hard to understand  the angst from which he surely suffered. He once wrote: I see all people behind their masks: pale corpses restlessly hurrying along a winding path, the end of which is death.

Upon returning to Holland and still having vacation time to explore Amsterdam, it seemed only fitting to attend an exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum (pronounced “fan hock moo-say-um” by the Dutch, but only the Dutch and God know how to hock up the “gh” sound at the end of Gogh) titled, “Munch/Van Gogh: The similarities and connections between two iconic artists.” Although van Gogh was born ten years earlier, their lives overlapped. Both men were reared by zealous, devoutly religious parents. Both lived in Paris, although there is no evidence they ever met. Because the same circle of influential artists knew both men, it is likely that they were aware of each other.

 

Madonna, E. Munch

Both suffered from mental illness and both are known to have intentionally injured himself—van Gogh famously cutting off part of an ear after an argument with Paul Gauguin; and Munch shooting himself in the hand after a lovers’ quarrel. Munch died at 81 after seeing the world ignite twice. Van Gogh killed himself at age 37—his entire body of work completed in only ten years. They seem like a mismatched match made in artists’ heaven. Because he lived so long, Munch knew van Gogh’s work well. Munch wrote in 1933, “During his short life van Gogh did not allow his flame to go out. Fire and embers were his brushes during the few years of his life, whilst he burned for his art. I have thought, and wished—in the long term, with more money at my disposal than he had—to follow in his footsteps.”

The Sick Child, E. Munch

 Here’s what I took away: both van Gogh and Munch created jaw-dropping works of art worthy of the singular renown reserved for the rare talents they were; and both created art that makes me wonder why and how some of their work could come from the same brushes as their masterworks. By the time Munch died, his art in no way resembled the work of his youth. He was a dark, sullen man who, as he once admitted, painted from his memory, and his memories were haunted by the deaths of his mother when he was only four years old, his sister when she was fifteen; and his brother at age thirty. Like Munch himself, another of his sisters was institutionalized for mental illness. 

The similarities between the two men seem obvious. Clearly, dark, sinister sides haunted both men, but both men used the struggle to achieve greatness, but a pair of quotations might best express one of their differences. Vincent van Gogh once wrote: Anyone who loves an ordinary, everyday person and is loved (in return) is happy—despite the dark side. Edvard Munch spoke of love this way: The ancients were right to compare love to a flame, for like a flame, love only leaves ashes behind.

(Note: In 1987, van Gogh’s Portrait of Dr. Gachet sold at auction for $82,500,000, making it the highest priced work of art ever at the time. In 2012, The Scream sold at auction for more than $119,000,000. To date the highest priced work of art is When Will You Marry? by Paul Gauguin, which sold for $300,000,000.)

Portrait of Dr. Gachet

When Will You Marry?