Published: 02/09/2022
It is not a difficult decision to return to this recently refurbished gallery in Somerset House. One wends one’s way up the beautiful spiral staircase to reach the top floor where the promise of Munch is the only thing that makes one pass quickly the wonderful Impressionist works on the way to the room.
A select group of pictures from his mighty oeuvre (many from the Rasmussen Meyer collection in Bergen), they reflect different stages of Munch’s working life: the influence of his European contemporaries, the self-portrait, the searing pain of the isolated figure, the skeletal horror of the crowd on Karl Johan Street, his sister Inger, some of his Frieze of Life.
I do recommend a visit which may lead you, as it did me, to the excellent biography by Sue Prideaux, “Behind the Scream.” More details in the book review section.
