Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream

by Sue Prideaux

Overview

Although almost everyone recognizes Edvard Munch’s famous painting The Scream, hardly anyone knows much about the man. What kind of person could have created this universal image, one that so vividly expressed all the uncertainties of the twentieth century? What kind of experiences did he have? In this book, the first comprehensive biography of Edvard Munch in English, Sue Prideaux brings the artist fully to life. Combining a scholar’s precision with a novelist’s insight, she explores the events of his turbulent life and unerringly places his experiences in their intellectual, emotional, and spiritual contexts.
With unlimited access to tens of thousands of Munch’s papers, including his letters and diaries, Prideaux offers a portrait of the artist that is both intimate and moving. Munch sought to paint what he experienced rather than what he saw, and as his life often veered out of control, his experiences were painful. Yet he painted throughout his long life, creating strange and dramatic works in which hysteria and violence lie barely concealed beneath the surface. An extraordinary genius, Munch connects with an audience that reaches around the world and across more than a century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300194210
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	10/25/2005
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	872,851
File size:	764 KB

About the Author

In addition to her prize-winning biography of Edvard Munch, Sue Prideaux is the author of I Am Dynamite! A Life of Friedrich Nietzsche, longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2019, and Strindberg: A Life, shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson prize for nonfiction and winner of the Duff Cooper prize.

Table of Contents

Foreword vii

Problems in Naming and Dating x

Munch's Paints and Materials xii

Maps xiv

Family Tree xvi

1 Shy Souls: 1863 and Before 1

2 Never More to Be Parted: 1864-1868 7

3 Growing up in Kristiania: 1869-1875 15

4 The Blood-red Banner: 1876-1877 24

5 Losing Faith: 1878-1881 33

6 'I have decided to become an artist': 1879-1881 34

7 'No more brown sauce': 1881-1885 47

8 A Calculated Seduction: 1885 58

9 A Few Drinks Before Breakfast: 1883-1886 69

10 Soap Art and Soul Art: 1886 79

11 And Virtue is a Sham: 1886-1889 91

12 The Saint-Cloud Manifesto: 1889-1890 108

13 Bizzarro: 1890-1892 122

14 God is Dead. Berlin: 1892-1894 136

15 Memento Mori: 1894-1896 153

16 Magical Assassins: 1896-1900 161

17 The Dance of Life: 1897-1899 176

18 Death and the Maiden: 1899-1901 193

19 The Shooting: 1902 207

20 Self-portrait in Hell: 1903-1908 226

21 The Hideous Face of Insanity: 1907-1909 245

22 The Sun, the Sun: 1909-1916 265

23 Where My Soul Fits in?: 1914-1922 285

24 Degenerate Art: 1922-1940 302

25 Death at the Helm: 1940-1944 318

Notes 329

Select Bibliography 366

Chronology 371

Photograph and Text Credits 375

Index 376

Editorial Reviews

Most famous for his painting The Scream, an iconic expression of anxiety and a reflection of his inner torment, Edvard Munch strove to paint his "soul's diary," a quest Prideaux chronicles incisively in this fascinating study. The first comprehensive English-language biography of Munch (1863-1944) presents an in-depth artistic, intellectual and psychological portrait of the Norwegian artist. A novelist and art historian, Prideaux (Magnetic North) enlivens her narrative with excerpts from Munch's diaries, effectively tracing the roots of his mental suffering: his father's religious fanaticism, the death of his mother and favorite sister, the insanity of another sister and the fear that he would go mad himself. Prideaux also charts Munch's intellectual influences, his immersion in Nietzsche and Dostoyevski and his involvement with a group of radical Norwegian intellectuals, including Hans Jaeger (a founding father of existentialism), and his later notable association with playwright and painter August Strindberg. Munch's angst-ridden paintings, imbued with fears of sex, illness and death, shocked the conservative Norwegian public, but found a receptive audience in Germany and elsewhere in Europe, where the study of mental disorders was coming into vogue. This penetrating account of his life sheds light on the inner demons that drove him to create these disturbing images. (Oct) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

In 1893, Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863-1944) painted The Scream, which became an icon for anxiety and alienation in the modern age. With scholarly care and skill, art historian and novelist Prideaux (Magnetic North) presents the first comprehensive biography of the artist to appear in English. Drawing from his personal papers, letters, and diaries, she examines Munch's life, beginning with his difficult childhood. Munch's mother died when he was five; he contracted tuberculosis at 13 and, near death himself, spent a winter in a sanatorium; his favorite sister, Sophie, died when he was 15; and, overall, the family was impoverished. Prideaux notes that these experiences influenced his dark and brooding paintings of loneliness and loss. Munch's greatest success was in Germany, where he inspired that country's expressionist movement. Much later, the story of the Nazi reaction to Munch's art, which officials condemned, confiscated, and then hoarded, is fascinating. Prideaux is not presenting an argument here but introducing and following Munch's own theme, which was to "paint his life." Her treatment is very effective and her writing, cohesive, clear, and often compelling. Recommended.-Ilene Skeen, Hunter Coll., New York Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

"...excellent...highly detailed...fascinating..." - Martin Bailey, The Art Newspaper

'... it is packed with information and event. Few biographies of artists can be described as gripping. This often is.'—-Martin Gayford, The Sunday Telegraph

"... a magisterial portrait of a deeply troubled man. It is both humerous and tragic in its account of Munch's abortive relationships with women, his dependence on drink, and his struggle for success and recognition.'—-Frances Spalding, The Sunday Times

"[An] assured and vivid biography."—Peter Schjeldahl, New Yorker

“Behind the Scream offers new insights and interpretations of Norway’s enigmatic painter. Unlimited access to the artist’s papers makes for a most interesting read.”—Art Times

"As one reads Prideaux’s meticulously detailed yet always companionable and often startling account of Munch’s dramatically difficult life and extraordinarily intense psyche, one marvels that he lived so long and achieved so much. . . . Prideaux makes Munch’s voice a key aspect of her narrative. . . . As Prideaux vividly chronicles Munch’s tumultuous life in turbulent times in Norway, Paris, and Berlin, the reader’s appreciation of this bold spirit who risked all to descend into the realm of archetypes and create art depicting the ‘secret life of the soul’ grows exponentially."—Booklist (starred review)

A riveting biography. . . . provides non-specialist readers with lucid analyses of Munch’s very varied, often unsettling paintings.

"[Prideaux’s] treatment is very effective and her writing, cohesive, clear, and often compelling. Recommended."—Library Journal

“Prideaux captures the gloom of the Nordic artist’s life and work. . . . A gripping read.”

[An] excellent new biography . . . Provides some deep background about the artist’s turbulent life and tormented psyche.

"...[Prideaux's] biography [has] a kind of sympathetic authority... [It] fills out the man behind the paintings." - Patricia Railing, The Art Book, February 2006

“An impeccable reference suitable for both classroom and library alike. . . . Prideaux does a masterful job at revealing the core of the man at the heart of the artist. . . . In addition to the wealth of information she presents, Prideaux augments her text with stunning illustrations that help to carry this book to another level. Recommended as a supporting class text in Art History courses that go beyond superficial study of the period, bringing students unto the most dynamic artists of each period. Would further prove indispensable to University-level libraries as a general reference text.”—The Electric Review

"Art historian Sue Prideaux has chronicled the turbulent life of the genius behind these paintings in a new and absorbing biography. Ms. Prideaux gives us rare and intimate insights. . . . Her connections and unrelenting research netted the biographer unprecedented access to thousands of Munch's diaries, letters and other papers. . . . Ms. Prideaux sorts out Munch's works and his difficult life with a scholar's eye for history and a novelist's eye for anecdotes."—Gwen Gibson, Washington Times

"Sue Prideaux's fascinating, well-illustrated biography of Edvard Munch reveals clearly and calmly the torments and accomplishments which this Norwegian artist experienced."—Carole J. Lambert, Southern Humanities Review

Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Biography in 2005, awarded by the University of Edinburgh.


Selected for Association of American University Presses (AAUP) Books for Public and Secondary School Libraries, 2006

“Such was the nature of Edvard Munch’s life that this book makes a gripping read. Prideaux provides a convincing sense of the psychological experiences of Munch and also the flavor of the times that he occupied.”—John Milner, University of Newcastle

“Munch emerges as a real person, rather like you and me.”—Karl Ove Knausgård

From the Publisher

Munch emerges as a real person, rather like you and me.”—Karl Ove Knausgård

Karl Ove Knausgård

Munch emerges as a real person, rather like you and me.”—Karl Ove Knausgård

Karl Ove Knausgård

Prideaux captures the gloom of the Nordic artist’s life and work. . . . A gripping read.”

San Francisco Chronicle - Christine Temin

Such was the nature of Edvard Munch’s life that this book makes a gripping read. Prideaux provides a convincing sense of the psychological experiences of Munch and also the flavor of the times that he occupied.”—John Milner, University of Newcastle

John Milner

Prideaux captures the gloom of the Nordic artist’s life and work. . . . A gripping read.”

— Christine Temin

San Francisco Chronicle