Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Self-Portrait with Wounded Eye
Edvard Munch Norwegian
Not on view
This self-portrait is barely painted at all. Sketchy outlines, accentuated by an occasional run of paint, leave the preprimed canvas openly visible. Unsigned, the work is difficult to date; the distinct darkened area around the right eye, however, suggests it is related to Munch’s condition in 1930, when a hemorrhage impaired the painter’s vision. Since he had already lost full function of his left eye, Munch found himself threatened with blindness. During his convalescence, he recorded the phenomena of entoptic vision (visual effects that originate within the eye itself) caused by the hemorrhage in colorful sketches, watercolors, and paintings. Yet here he chose to employ only the sparsest means, conveying a sense of bleakness that seems to directly mirror his fear for his eyesight.
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