Andrew Carter’s Lectures: Edvard Munch Death and the Child
Death and the Child, 1889
The angels of fear, sorrow and death stood by my side since the day I was born-Edvard Munch
The Scream, 1893
The subject of the painting is informed by Munch’s childhood. When he was only five, the artist witnessed the death of his mother and his sister, both from tuberculosis. His awareness of the ravages of TB is clearly demonstrated in the painting. The woman in the bed is pale and emaciated. Her sickly greenish color (and the pale background that consumes her) makes it clear she is dead. There is also an oddly vampiric quality to the woman (who we assume is the child’s mother, though the relationship is never clearly indicated). One half-expects her to jump out of the bed, to lunge for the girl who has turned away in horror.
Edvard Munch is best known for The Scream (1893). Painted on cardboard, using oil, tempera, pastel and crayon, The Scream’s central image, a squiggly face contorted in anguish, is one of the iconic images in modern art.
Despite the power of the image, The Scream is not the piece of Munch’s art that is believed to be haunted.
That distinction goes to his 1889 work, Death and the Child.
In fact, Munch may have been referencing the folk beliefs of the 19th century, that those afflicted with tuberculosis went out after they died and consumed the blood of others. These beliefs had deep roots in Europe and colonial America. They even contributed to the New England Vampire Panic of the 17th and 18th centuries, when people burned the bodies of those who died of the disease, lest they rise at night in search of fresh blood.
But the ghoulish figure in the bed is not what makes the painting disturbing. The corpse is not the reason this painting is considered haunted. It’s the little girl. Her expression of silent horror, the way she covers her ears to block out the horrible thing that has just happened, is clearly reminiscent of the central figure of The Scream (which was painted five years earlier). But instead of blunting the blow by creating an anguished cartoon-like character, Munch makes the child in the painting heartbreakingly human.
Death and the Child Detail
People who have viewed Death and the Child in the Munch Museum in Oslo have reported that the girl’s eyes follow them in the room, that they have heard the rustle of bedsheets when they get close to the painting (suggesting the mother is less dead than she appears). Others have been overwhelmed by sadness, experienced tightness in the chest and been struck with other physical ailments. Some even experienced suicidal thoughts in the painting’s presence. One man claimed that the girl’s pale eyes haunted him for months afterward, driving him to the brink of madness. These reactions might explain why Death and the Child has never been privately owned. Who would want to invite such turmoil into the heart of their home?
Some have suggested that Munch may have haunted his own work. Believe it or not, this may have happened with another artist, a writer in New Orleans. When General Beauregard, a veteran of the Civil War, sat down to pen his memoirs, he included a turbulent account of the Battle of Shiloh, where more than 23,000 men died. Legend has it that people began reporting strange sounds coming from the house during the writing of the book. Apparently, the general’s account was so vivid he managed to haunt his own house, and maybe even spread ghosts through the published copies of his book.
Beauregard Keyes House, Scene of a Self-Inflicted Haunting?
Could this be the case with Edvard Munch? The painter was certainly steeped in Gothic lore. His father entertained him from an early age with ghost stories and the tales of Edgar Allan Poe. This, coupled with years of poor health and the death of family members, stoked an already powerful imagination. Perhaps Munch’s artistic passion attracted forces from beyond?
His description of the inspiration for The Scream suggests an eerie, almost supernatural origin.
“I was walking down the road with two friends when the sun set; suddenly the sky turned as red as blood. Tongues of fire and blood stretched out across the bluish black fjord. My friends went on walking, while I lagged behind, shivering in fear.”
Who’s to say that some spirits didn’t find their way into his anguished masterpieces?
Edvard Munch (1863-1944)
DID YOU KNOW?: Copies of The Scream (Munch created several versions) have been stolen from Norwegian museums twice, in 1994 and 2004. Not surprising, given its value. On May 2, 2012, the 1895 pastel version sold for 119 million dollars.