{"id":45191,"date":"2025-02-24T12:00:37","date_gmt":"2025-02-24T11:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arturamon.com\/rediscovered-munch-painting-with-intriguing-mystery-to-go-on-display-in-uk-for-first-time\/"},"modified":"2025-02-24T12:00:37","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T11:00:37","slug":"rediscovered-munch-painting-with-intriguing-mystery-to-go-on-display-in-uk-for-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arturamon.com\/en\/rediscovered-munch-painting-with-intriguing-mystery-to-go-on-display-in-uk-for-first-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Rediscovered Munch painting with \u2018intriguing mystery\u2019 to go on display in UK for first time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Striking image will be unveiled at National Portrait Gallery in March, as part of a major exhibition of the Norwegian master\u2019s portraits<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dayla Alberge | 26\/01\/2025 | The Guardian<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Edvard Munch\u2019s 1893 portrait of his lawyer friend Thor L\u00fctken has two ethereal figures hidden on his sleeve. Photograph: Private Collection<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first glance, it is a striking portrait by Edvard Munch<\/a>, painted in 1892, a year before the Norwegian master was to create his most famous masterpiece, The Scream<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But peer closely at the man\u2019s sleeve along the bottom edge and two embracing, ethereal figures in a mysterious moonlit landscape are revealed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Close-up<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Detail of L\u00fctken\u2019s sleeve in the portrait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The intriguing painting within a painting by one of the most significant artists of the 20th century, a pioneer of expressionism, is to be seen for the first time in Britain after its rediscovery. It will be unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in March as part of a large exhibition, Edvard Munch Portraits<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sitter for the painting was Munch\u2019s friend Thor L\u00fctken, a lawyer who gave him professional help and spent summer months with him on the Oslo fjord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of L\u00fctken\u2019s daughters also appears in Munch\u2019s painting The Girls on <\/a><\/em>the Bridge<\/a><\/em> (1901).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The portrait of L\u00fctken, an oil on canvas, was listed as \u201clocation unknown\u201d in the definitive catalogue of Munch\u2019s paintings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Munch\u2019s 1901 artwork The Girls on the Bridge features Thor L\u00fctken\u2019s daughter.\u00a0Photograph: Universal History Archive\/Universal Images Group\/Getty Images<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It had in fact been with the lawyer\u2019s descendants, who had moved to Spain, loaning it to the National Museum of Arts of Catalonia in Barcelona before selling it in 2022, so that several members of the family could benefit from it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was sold by a Barcelona art dealer, Artur Ramon, who said that Munch was believed to have painted it for his friend in lieu of payment for his legal services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

L\u00fctken was among several friends whom Munch described as his \u201clifeguards\u201d or \u201cguardians\u201d and who helped the artist in difficult times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Munch would no doubt have been astonished to learn that one of his versions of The Scream<\/em> sold for a record $119.9m in 2012<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramon described the hidden landscape in the L\u00fctken portrait as \u201ca mystery left by Munch only for the sharpened minds\u201d, adding: \u201cWhat did L\u00fctken, the lawyer, think of this? The answer is a secret between portrayer and sitter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Munch\u2019s<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Munch\u2019s 1893 painting of The Scream. A later version from 1895 fetched a then auction record of $119.9m in 2012\u00a0Photograph: Dennis Hallinan\/Alamy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exhibition\u2019s curator, Alison Smith, said the symbolism of the hidden landscape was open to interpretation: \u201cThe figures reprise the lovers in Munch\u2019s Kiss by the Window<\/em> and those in the distance of Melancholy<\/em>, while also anticipating Death and Life <\/em>of 1894 \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPainted in shades of inky blue reminiscent of his other symbolist works, the scene alludes to death as well as romance, evoking feelings on the outer edges of consciousness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe portrait was intended as a gift to the sitter, which helps explain the encoded message and why Munch felt free to experiment with the subject.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She added: \u201cYou\u2019ll sometimes walk past a painting and just think that\u2019s just a portrait. But this one lures you in. It\u2019s got an intriguing mystery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sue Prideaux, a Munch biographer, said: \u201cIt\u2019s a top-quality portrait from Munch\u2019s most important period \u2013 the same year as Vampire <\/em>and Madonna<\/em> and just a year before The Scream<\/em>. The ghostly landscape with the figure in white bears echoes of many paintings, particularly Mermaid<\/em> and Young Girl on a Jetty<\/em>. We\u2019ll be trying to unravel the mysteries of this painting for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NPG\u2019s Munch exhibition will be the first in the UK to focus exclusively on his portraits. Most of the artworks will not be known to a British audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Munch\u2019s artwork Young Girl on a Jetty echoes the ghostly landscape that features in his portrait of Thor L\u00fctken.\u00a0Photograph: ROBERT\/Alamy Stock Vector<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early family portraits include a poignant one of Munch\u2019s sister Laura on a family holiday, just a year before she was hospitalised with schizophrenia \u2013 one of many tragic incidents in his life that inspired his work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith said the exhibition would show a different side to the painter: \u201cContrary to the typical portrayal of Munch as an artist isolated from the mainstream, he will be presented as a social being.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She added that the \u201clifeguards\u201d were so important to him that he refused to be parted from their portraits, \u201cwhich acted as substitutes for the men when they were not around\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Striking image will be unveiled at National Portrait Gallery in March, as part of a major exhibition of the Norwegian master\u2019s portraits Dayla Alberge | 26\/01\/2025 | The Guardian Edvard […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":45188,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[612,723],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-en","category-press"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arturamon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arturamon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arturamon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arturamon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arturamon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arturamon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arturamon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arturamon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arturamon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arturamon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}