Munch settled in the small town of Kragerø on the southern coast of his native Norway in 1909. After decades spent in the art capitals of Europe, a nervous breakdown spurred him to seek out a secluded, peaceful existence and “let the molecules settle down after all my inner turmoil.” The artist’s move to Kragerø awakened his interest in landscape painting and stimulated his development of a bright palette and energetic, sweeping brushwork. Here, lively greens, blues, and pinks evoke the transformation of the Norwegian landscape after a long, cold winter.
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Inscription: Signed and dated (lower left): edv Munch 1912
[Galerie Lutz, Berlin, until 1922; sold in autumn for $1,000, along with at least two paintings by Marc Chagall and a colored woodcut by Munch, to Thayer]; Scofield Thayer, New York (1922–d. 1982; on view at the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Mass., as part of the Dial Collection, 1931–82)
Kristiania [Oslo]. Blomqvist Kunsthandel. October 1916 [see Woll 2009].
New York. Montross Gallery. "Original Paintings, Drawings, and Engravings Being Exhibited with the Dial Folio 'Living Art'," January 26–February 14, 1924, no catalogue (typed checklist no. 26; as "Landscape").
Worcester Art Museum. "Exhibition of the Dial Collection of Paintings, Engravings, and Drawings by Contemporary Artists," March 5–30, 1924, no. 24 (as "Landscape").
Northampton, Mass. Hillyer Art Gallery, Smith College. "The Dial Collection," May 1924, no catalogue [see Dresser 1959].
Oberlin, Ohio. Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College. "Five Expressionists: Hofer, Munch, Hartley, Kokoschka, Schmidt-Rottluff," April 1946, no. 1 (as "Landscape," anonymously loaned through the courtesy of the Worcester Art Museum).
Worcester Art Museum. "The Dial and the Dial Collection," April 30–September 8, 1959, no. 67 (as "Landscape: Kragerø," Dial Collection).
Worcester Art Museum. "The Dial Revisited," June 29–August 22, 1971, no catalogue [see Worcester Art Museum 1971].
Worcester Art Museum. "'The Dial': Arts and Letters in the 1920s," March 7–May 10, 1981, no. 97.
Tacoma Art Museum. "Edvard Munch and the Sea," April 9–July 17, 2016, no catalogue (checklist no. 23).
The Dial 77 (July 1924), pl. 1 (color), as "Landscape," in the Dial Collection.
"Modern Art Spirit Seen in Collection." Worcester Daily Telegram (March 6, 1924), p. 4.
P[atricia]. H[arwood]. inFive Expressionists: Hofer, Munch, Hartley, Kokoschka, Schmidt-Rottluff. Exh. cat., Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College. Oberlin, Ohio, 1946, pp. 7, 18, no. 1.
D[aniel]. C[atton]. R[ich]. "Some Highlights of the 'Taste of the Twenties'." Worcester Art Museum News Bulletin and Calendar 24 (May 1959), unpaginated.
Josephine Herbst. "'The Dial' and Modern Art." Arts Magazine 33 (September 1959), pp. 31–32, ill. [reprinted in "The Best in Arts," Arts Yearbook 6 (1962), James R. Mellow, ed., p. 44, ill.].
Louisa Dresser inThe Dial and the Dial Collection. Exh. cat., Worcester Art Museum. Worcester, Mass., 1959, p. 81, no. 67, pl. 67, gives early provenance, exhibition history, and publication history for this work.
William Wasserstrom. A Dial Miscellany. Syracuse, 1963, ill. after p. 204.
"The Dial Revisited." Worcester Art Museum News Bulletin and Calendar 36 (May 1971), unpaginated, ill., illustrates the work in conjunction with "The Dial Revisited," an exhibition held June 29–August 22, 1971, at the Worcester Art Museum.
Patricia Boyd Wilson. "Munch in Lyric Mood." Christian Science Monitor (July 26, 1971), p. 8, ill.
Nicholas Joost. "The Dial Collection: Tastes and Trends of the 'Twenties." Apollo 94 (December 1971), p. 494.
William S. Lieberman. "Twentieth Century Art." Annual Report of the Trustees: The Metropolitan Museum of Art no. 115 (1985), p. 53.
Gerd Woll. Edvard Munch: Complete Paintings. London, 2009, vol. 3, p. 989, no. 1008, ill. (color); vol. 4, pp. 1641, 1672, no. 1008, ill. (color), calls it "Landscape from Kragerø;" states that there is no reason to doubt Munch's dating of the picture; states that it was exhibited at Blomqvist Kunsthandel, Kristiania, in 1916.
Kristina Wilson. "Fearing a 'Conservative Public': The Dial Collection in Worcester." American Art 27 (Fall 2013), fig. 2 (installation photo, Exh. Worcester 1924).
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