Edvard Munch - The Sick Child [1885-86]

Edvard Munch used a simple composition for this sickbed scene, placing the main image in the centre and to the fore of the pictorial space. The sparseness of the details serves to highlight certain prominent elements, such as the girl’s head against the white pillow, the woman’s bent neck, and the point of contact between the two. Hailed as Edvard Munch’s breakthrough work, The Sick Child evinces his turn toward a more personal, expressive, and emotionally charged form of art. The painting is often seen in connection with Munch’s loss of his one-year-older sister Sophie, who died of tuberculosis in 1877. Dying children were moreover a common subject among the artists of the period.

 

[National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo - Oil on canvas, 120 x 118.5 cm]

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