Evening, Melancholy I
Edvard Munch (Norwegian, 1863–1944)
1896
- Medium
- Hand-colored woodcut
- Classification
- Dimensions
- Image: 37.7 x 45 cm (14 13/16 x 17 11/16 in.)
- Culture
- Norway
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Prints
- Credit line
- Gift of Mrs. Clive Runnels in memory of Leonard C. Hanna Jr.
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Evening, Melancholy I depicts the jilted, tormented art critic Jappe Nilssen, Munch's friend, on the shore of Åsgårdstrand, a fishing village south of Oslo. Munch chose heavily grained blocks of wood, allowing the pattern of the board to add texture to the scene, and he exploited the handmade aspect of the technique by carving blocks crudely. He also experimented so that each impression is unique, using black ink on the woodblock and watercolor and gouache to color the sheet extensively. An example of how method can reinforce meaning, the simplified shapes, flattened space, and dark hues create a visual correspondence to the figure's deep depression.
