Expressionism: Yin Man Wong talks on Munch's Death in the Sickroom, 1895.

Artist:  Edvard Munch

Title:  Munch's Death in the Sickroom

Year:  1895

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 59 x 66 in 150 x 167.5 cm

In this essay, a brief biography of Edvard Munch would be given and the analysis of Death in the sickroom and interesting things about this painting would be stated.

Artist’s biography

To start with, Edvard Munch was a Norwegian painter who played an important role on German Expressionism. Sometimes, he was classified as a post-impressionism artist. It was because he was really influenced by impressionism artists Claude Monet and followed by the post-impressionism artists Vincent Van Gogh. His painting style was inspired by Van Gogh in terms of brushwork, colours and lines. Also, Munch was an artist who would draw his really story through painting. Munch’s masterpiece The Scream 1893 has still be appreciated by the majority nowadays as many reproduced pieces could be found. The majority of his artworks depicted death, anxiety and love scenes, By the Deathbed Fever 1893, Anxiety 1894, The Sick Child 1885 and Vampire 1895 are some examples. Munch was good at presented the sorrow, uncertain and distress feelings visually and It might related to his dramatic life and childhood experience. As he was deeply affected by the illnesses- tuberculosis and depression- that afflicted member of his family, therefore, death became one of his recurring themes.[1] Also, Munch was famous in representing the inward significance rather than the outward appearance. Here is one of his quotes “Painting picture by picture, I followed the impressions my eye took in at heightened moments. I painted only memories, adding nothing, no details that I did not see. Hence the simplicity of the paintings, their emptiness.”[2]

Analysis

Second, Death in the sickroom was a painting that actually a portrait of the death of Munch's younger sister, called Sophie. She died when Munch was fourteen years old.

There were seven characters displayed in this painting. The one who seated in the wicker chair was believed to represent Munch’s sister Sophie, she just passed away and the other six people were Munch and his family members. It was noticeable that only the back of the dead person was showed. She was placed in the background. In contrast, the faces of the family members were seen even though it was not detailed depicted. Also, the sickroom was spacious with less decoration. It simply had a bed, chairs, a painting and a shortage with some red medicines. Most of the things were not very detailed expressed and were draw in pure colours. The feelings of space in the sickroom might create a sense of emptiness. Furthermore, to a large extent, the depicted things in this painting were not three-dimensional but two-dimensional flat patterns. Rather than pursuing visually well, Munch put focus on conveys the feelings of pain, lost and the grieving family members. Besides, the brushwork of this painting was not common seen in Munch’s artwork. He used loose lines to sketch the images. Therefore, the images were not very conspicuous.

How this work fits into Expressionism

In addition, the artwork fit into the expressionism as it put more emphasis on personal psychological feelings than on technical skill or artistic effect.

In expressionism, the most obvious feature was attempting to depict emotion visually rather than an objective reality, those artworks might reflect an artist's internal sensation and experiences on the world around them. Therefore, the message of the painting was not directly presented, it might be quit abstract. Death in the sickroom was a typical example. The themes of this painting were depression and sorrow. Without knowing the title of the painting, it still abled to know the theme of this painting. It was because the emotion was created through the hue of the painting. The hue of this artwork was monochromatic. It was obvious that harmony and vivid colours were excluded. Dark blue, pale green and dark orange were the dominant colours. They were characterized as cold colour. Using cold colour might evoke viewers to be aware of some negative feelings such as sorrow, painful and wretched. Together with the bowed heads of people, the sorrow sensation was overhanging the room. Thus, the overall effect gave the clear mindset to viewers and thus they might able to get the message of the painting directly.

Why this work interests me

Moreover, there were several interesting points in this painting. First, the dead person was not be emphasized. Even though there was a bed, we could not see the dead person, Sophie, laying on it. She actually seated in the chair and her facial expression was unknown. Without reading the description of the painting, people might not recognized the dead person easily. On the other hand, Munch put emphasis on the posture of the family members rather than their realistic face. It signified the emotions to a certain degree. In Death in the sickroom, there was no interaction among family members, they were rather isolated from each other than gathered to pray for Sophie, each person seemed lost in their own lonely thoughts and drawn into their own grief. Even though their exact facial expression was not clearly depicted, their body language conveyed sad emotion. Moreover, all members had their head down, except the frontal woman. There were two members with their hands clasped, it seemed to pray for the dead sister. It was also noticeable that the posture of person in the left hand side and the person in right hand side was similar, a hand relied on objects with their hand down. Each family member embodied a psychological state. Therefore, instead of depicting the dead sister, the artist used the isolated family to present the despair and gloomy atmosphere.

The second remarkable point was the facial expression of the frontal woman and her clothes were clearly visible. Everything in the painting was not very detailed expressed such as the people's faces, clothes and the background. The unseen face might give a sense of unrealistic. Almost all the things were in pale and single colours including the wall, the floor and the clothes. However, when people first looked at this painting, the focal point might be the frontal figures. The woman stood out because of her hopeless, mask-like, pale and thin face. It seemed that she amplified a sense of grief. Also, her clothes was different from other family members. As some patterns could be found in her dress but the others just had dark colour clothes. It made a big contrast. The wicker chair might be the second objects that the viewers pay attention on it. The chair was depicted in detail with a lot of lines and a circle. It was predicted that perhaps the one who seated in the chair was an important person.

Two key quotes
Besides, there were two questions that I had in mind after studying this painting. The first question is “How Death in the sickroom different from the Munch’s paintings in expressionism period?” the other is ”Why Munch depicted his family in the sickroom rather than just depicted his dead sister only?”

For the first question, the answer was Munch did not used vivid colours, for example red, blue, purple and yellow, in Death in the sickroom comparing with his other artworks such as The Scream, The Mystery of a Summer Night, Red Virginia Creeper and Anxiety. The drastic use of color in those paintings helped to reinforce the expression of paintings. Yet, the colours in this painting also had the effect to evoke particular feelings. Also, the brushwork was quite different. Looking at the Munch’s artworks, it was common to see rough brushstrokes and scratched surface but the technical skills in Death in the sickroom was not that explicit. But, to a certain degree, it showed that the brushwork was not the flat one.

When it comes to the second question, the answer was possibly because Sophie’s death had great impact on Munch and his family. “I learned early about the misery and dangers of life”[3] was one of the famous quotes of Munch. This tragedy of losing family member in Munch’s life seemed terrible and unbearable. As a result, he rather expressed these feelings directly by depicting the instant emotion and reaction of himself as well as his family members in painting. The subject matter was therefore not the death of Sophie but how her death brought pain to the whole family.

Conclusion

Last but not least, in expressionism, the features of the artwork is reflecting the artists' subjective point of views or expressing certain sensation. Numerous of Munch's paintings depicted the scene of darkness, despair, anxiety and unhappiness. “For as long as I can remember I have suffered from a deep feeling of anxiety which I have tried to express in my art.”[4](Edvard Munch) This quote showed how Munch sought to paint what he experienced. Death in a sickroom was one of the most typical paintings that depicted the sorrow of death. Yet what Munch’s work captured was not death but the melancholic moods of the family members towards the dying person.

Reference

Books

Brenard. E(2003), Modern Art 1905-1945, Chambers

Cordulack S.W (2002), Edvard Munch and the Physiology of Symbolism, Rosemont Publishing & Printing Group

Jim W.(2009), Edvard Munch,Mitchell Lane

Lubow A. (2006), Edvard Munch Beyond the scream, Smithsonian

Prideaux(2005), Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream, Yale University Press

Journal

Geisler S.L(2006) ,Death in the Sick Room Edvard Munch (1863–1944) [electronic version], Medicine Through the Arts,3, 56-57

Websites

The Munch Museum 2015

Retrieved from: http://munchmuseet.no/assets/5.MAGASIN-Munch-eng-oppslag.pdf

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[1]

[2] Edvard Munch quotes Retrieved from:http://www.edvardmunch.org/edvard-munch-quotes.jsp

[3] Edvard Munch quotes Retrieved from:http://www.edvardmunch.org/edvard-munch-quotes.jsp

[4] Edvard Munch quotes Retrieved from:http://www.edvardmunch.org/edvard-munch-quotes.jsp