Edvard Munch’s Melancholy III: A Rare Early Woodcut with a Remarkable Provenance

Purchased in 1969 in Norway for NRK 42,000 (the equivalent of £3300), we are delighted to be offering this woodcut by Edvard Munch with its original receipt from the art gallery where it was initially bought. Discovered locally and kept within the same family ever since, this important woodcut ‘Melancholy III’ will be included in our Fine and Decorative Art Auction on 28^th October.

Munch drew inspiration from his own life experiences including anger, despair, innocence and melancholy. ‘Melancholy’ was a theme that Munch revisited in his woodblocks and paintings many times, expressing the overwhelming feeling of sadness and psychological despair. The settinghere  is a rocky shoreline at Asgardstrand where Munch spent his summers between 1889 and 1906. The rejected figure in the foreground depicts art critic Jappe Nilssen – Munch’s lifelong friend who had a doomed love affair with Oda Lsson Krohg - representing his mood here. Oda is seen with her husband approaching the rowing boat although could this be something that is imagined by the sitter or what is really happening. The figure sits hunched over in pensive mode reminiscent of The Thinker but the sadness alludes to Munch’s relatable romantic despair and his relationship with a married woman. In the distance are three figures one is a man carrying oars, in addition to a man and a woman who plan to row over to a small island to have a romantic episode. Melancholy is considered one of the Norwegian’s first symbolist works, a deceptively simple composition with great depth and remarkably complex method.

This motif appeared for the first time in a pastel of 1891 and was repeated in five paintings between 1891 and 1896, and two woodcuts between 1896 and 1902. as well as in the first printed rendition of the subject executed in 1896, Melancholy I. Melancholy III bears a close resemblance to one of the paintings with the correct positioning of the rocky landscape.

This woodcut (Woll 203;Sch 144) is printed in greyish blue and is one of the very early impressions apparently before GerdWoll first state Catalogue Raisonné. It is before the delineation of the figure in the foreground and the completion of the rocks in the background. It was created with a complex jigsaw technique. Two oak blocks a key block and the colour block were made. The colour block had no drawn line and would have been hand cut with a fretsaw and cut into sections for the sky, sea and shore and these would have been inked accordingly. The second block is carved with the design and printed in black over the coloured composition consequently no two woodcuts are the same. Munch would change the colours to create different atmospheres and emotions.

Provenance: From an Important European Collection. With original receipt from 1969. Purchased from one of the oldest more historical institutions and thus guaranteed as a work by Edvard Munch.