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Madonna
Edvard Munch · Symbolism & Art Nouveau
- Artist
- Edvard Munch (1863–1944)
- Date
- 1894
- Dimensions
- 91 x 70.5 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway
Munch’s Madonna shows a half-naked woman with long, flowing dark hair, her eyes closed and one arm raised behind her head, surrounded by swirling waves of dark colour. A red halo-like band crowns her head.
A closer look
Despite the title, this is not a traditional image of the Virgin Mary. Munch combined the sacred and the erotic: the woman appears in a moment of ecstasy that can be read as love, conception or even approaching death. The undulating lines of colour around her body seem to vibrate with energy. The painting belongs to The Frieze of Life, Munch’s great cycle on love, anxiety and death. He later made a famous lithograph version with a border of sperm cells and a foetus, making the theme of life and death even more explicit.
More by Edvard Munch
In this gallery
Famous works elsewhere
- Vampire 1893
- Death and the Child 1899
- The Scream 1893
- Dr. Linde's Sons 1903
- From Travemünde 1903
- Arve Arvesen 1891