Edvard Munch
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A self portrait
Signed Edv. Munch. Indian ink on paper image 16.5 x 11 cm. Possibly part of correspondence from Munchs time in Berlin around 1894/95. Inscribed in German and Norwegian: "Hier bei Spree ist schön – am Mengelberg zum Beispiel – [It is beautiful here by the Spree - with Mengelberg for example - ] In memory of many beautiful trips in the spring of 1894".
Provenance
Private Collection, Sweden.
More information
During the year 1894, Edvard Munch created an etching, a portrait of the German businessman and art collector Richard Mengelberg (1853–1932). It was his first work as a graphic artist. Mengelberg was the father of Nora Mengelberg, whose portrait Munch painted the same year. Mengelberg published an article about Munch's work in 1894 for the Frankfurter Zeitung. There are similar self-portraits in other letters preserved in the Munch Museum's archive in Oslo.
Munch lived and worked in Berlin again and again between 1892 and 1908. He thrived by the Spree where he found artists, gallery owners, intellectuals and collectors to promote his work.
Compare Edvard Munch's "Karikert selvportrett", ca 1894, in the collections of Munchmuseet, Oslo, ref. MM.T.01988-verso. See picture.