Family, disease, pain and death in the pictorial work of Edvard Munch

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Disease, pain and death are very significant events in life thus it is natural to see them reflected in pictorial works of art. Considering Edvard Munch had a severe experience of illness and death in his own family when child, he felt the need to deepen and analyzing his life and work to discover the intrinsic meaning of disease and death to illustrate some of his canvases. METHODOLOGY: For an adequate evaluation and analysis Munch's life, work and historical context was studied. The visual support for this communication has been extracted from diverse pictorial works directly concerned with terms as family, pain, disease and death. CONCLUSIONS: Painting constitutes a vehicle to express and show disease, death and to deepen in their implicit ones. Munch like a main character of a Greek tragedy painted his environment, he showed what he saw: his sister's illness, his family's pain, his mother's death and his patient awaiting of his own death. Much's work of art is like a dramatic, raw, real and unique a universe created by a tormented and solitary genius who suffered like no other human being the experience of pain, disease and death in his own family.

Keywords

• Familia
• Enfermedad
• Muerte
• Munch, Edvard