Edvard Munch's art was made from his troubles. When, in middle age, he retreated to the estate he had bought on the outskirts of Oslo (then still called Kristiania), love affairs, drink, a nervous breakdown and illness had already supplied the subject-matter his peculiarly subjective art required. The ideas he developed early he went on using. Late in his career he wrote: 'The second half of my life has been a battle just to keep myself upright. My path has led me along the edge of a precipice, a bottomless pit . . . From time to time I've tried to get away from the path, thrown myself into the throng of life among people. But every time I have had to go back to the path along the cliff top.'

LRB 20 October 2005 | PDF Download