Self-portrait,

1895

Munch spent much of his long career experimenting with new ways of communicating the human emotional experience. Among his favored subjects were his own face and body, which convey the artist’s understanding of his physical and mental fortitude—or fragility—as it shifted throughout his life.

Munch made this self-portrait as he was developing the composition used in many of his works: a frontal figure set against a minimal background. Here, the somber, deep-black ground is relieved only by the artist’s skeletal arm; his face, with a haunting, vacant expression; and the white rectangular form that illuminates the base of his neck. We are faced with a stark image of the thirty-two-year-old Munch contemplating his mortality during a wonderfully vibrant moment in his career, when he was embraced by avant-garde artistic circles that advocated explorations of psychological and physical unease.

Janet Rauscher, Editor, Princeton University Art Museum