The Death Chamber

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The Death Chamber

Artist Edvard Munch (Norwegian, 1863-1944)

Date1896

Dimensions15 1/4 x 21 5/8 in. (38.7 x 54.9 cm)

Mediumlithograph

ClassificationPrints

Credit LineFrederick B. and Kate L. Shoemaker Fund

Object number

1976.139

Not on View

Label TextMunch’s predilection for images of grief and despair was due in part to his early and repeated encounters with death, experiences that were for him a constant source of creativity and inspiration. Death in the Sickroom recalls the death of his sister Sophie in 1877 when she was fifteen and he a year younger. The artist did not portray death itself, but rather its effect on those left behind, suggesting the ever-present nature of pain and loss. He evoked the subject’s desolation though the rigid poses, blank spaces, and stark contrasts of black and white. This lithograph was to be part of Munch’s never-published portfolio The Mirror, his graphic counterpart to his painted Frieze of Life.Published ReferencesToledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 282, repr. (col.).Exhibition HistoryToledo, The Toledo Museum of Art, The Painter Was a Printmaker, June 23 - Sept. 9, 1984.

Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, Strong Sensations: Impressionism and Symbolist Works on Paper, 1860-1900, April 23-June 20, 2010 (no cat.).

Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, What’s Wrong with Me? Art and Disease, April 22-August 7, 2011, (UT Student exhibition).

Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, Looks Good on Paper: Masterworks and Favorites, Oct. 10, 2014-Jan. 11, 2015.