Expressionist painter Edvard Munch (1863-1944) was born in Loten, Norway. He perhaps is best known for “The Scream” (1893), a painting that reveals his anxiety, alcoholism, and depression. He was weighed down by family members’ deaths when he was very young. Additional factors were his poor health and his father’s religious zeal and harsh discipline. As an expressionist he almost always chose emotion over realism.  Munch also painted many portraits and landscapes. He spent his life in Norway, with trips to Paris and Germany. 

 

This article on Munch’s lesser-known landscapes, winter settings in particular, explores a unique side of his work. By the time “Winter in the Woods, Nordstrand” (1899) (24”x 35”) (oil on cardboard) was painted, Munch had become known internationally. From 1899 through 1901, he painted several winter landscapes of the fjords at Nordstrand, south of Oslo. The setting of this piece is a dark spruce forest in the snow. No people are present, but footprints in the snow indicate that people recently had come this way. The heavy clumps of snow on the trees are fresh. The wind has not yet dislodged them. Munch used thick strokes of paint, but he let the tan cardboard show through in places. Like the Impressionists, whom he admired, he painted shadows in shades of blue. However, he also had a heavy hand with black. He was creating his personal style. 

The painting, often described as melancholy, is a close-up view of the forest, the sky not included in the scene. But the sun shines across the exposed ground and causes the snow to glow. Munch depicted nature as raw and powerful with his use of broad sweeping brushstrokes. He explained, “Painting picture by picture, I followed the impressions my eye took in at heightened moments. I painted only memories, adding nothing, no details that I did not see. Hence the simplicity of the paintings, their emptiness.”

In winter in Norway, “polar night,” the scientific term for the phenomena, occurs when the Sun remains below the horizon. The title of the painting, “White Night” (1901) (45’’x44”), actually refers to the same phenomenon that occurs during the summer. The whiteness of the snow prevents the winter polar night from becoming completely dark. Munch painted the dark silhouette of the trees in the foreground, the snow and tree shadows in the middle ground, a tan barn with a snow-covered roof, another stand of spruce trees, and the swirling waters of the fjord and coast in the distance. The sky is sunless, but not dark.  Munch’s use of black and cool blue colors produces the chill of the scene. Not at all depressing, the work is an expression of the beauty, power, and vast scope of nature’s many attitudes.

 

Munch painted numerous winter scenes, and like music, they are a theme and variations. “Winter Landscape” (1901) (32”x48”) focuses more on the field of white snow and the blue shadow cast by the spruce tree. Large red, brown, and black rocks stand out against the white snow. A row of shorter and taller trees in the distance also calls attention to the stars in the blue sky. Munch never tired of painting winter scenes

 

“New Snow” (1900-01) (29’’x23’’) presents another view of a spruce forest. A wide road leads the viewer’s eye through the forest. It was well-used, but covered in fresh snow. Brown tree trunks are scattered through the forest and the spruce trees are painted fresh green. The stylized trees have just been covered by the stylized clumps of snow. Munch transformed the forest into something dreamlike, poetic, and timeless. 

Munch suffered a physical and mental breakdown sometime during the period of 1908 through 1909, and he checked himself into a private sanitarium. On recovering, he declared he had become a teetotaler and a vegetarian. He returned to the town of Kragero and settled in there. He wrote, “I am now working full time, I feel, it now seems as if I am at my artistic peak. Never has my work given me so much joy.”  He was honored in a Sonderbund exhibition in Copenhagen that included works by Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Picasso. Munch wrote, ”All the wildest things that have been painted in Europe are collected here–I am practically a pale classicist.”

Munch moved in 1916 to a country home in Ekely, near Oslo. The house, with a view of the city, sat on 11 acres that included an apple orchard. He built several studios. He lived a fairly isolated life and continued to paint landscapes. He nearly died during the 1919 Spanish flu epidemic.  During that time, he had several exhibitions in major European cities.

 

“Starry Night” (1922-24) (47”x39”) was one of the night sky series Munch painted from the top steps of his veranda. He often depicted himself as a lone shadow on the snow as he does here. Munch, the only figure in some of his paintings, is interpreted as loneliness and solitude which he preferred. He does include a view of the distant city. It is in the vastness of nature that human fragility, his own and humans in general, can be felt. There is a sense of life and time passing. 

In this later style, Munch used more varied and more vivid colors. The color red carries through the work: the red of the veranda in the foreground, the red in the bridge, the red house with the white windows in the middle ground, the pink sky created by the Sun’s position below the horizon, and the reds and pinks in the stars set in the dark blue heaven. He often depicted the constellations of Jupiter or the Pleiades that intensified his sense of the celestial world.

The expressionism of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” (1889) and Munch’s “Starry Night” often have been compared. Both works are considered masterpieces.

 

Munch moved to Kragero in 1908 after his nervous breakdown. He found the light and environment stimulating. He began painting urban scenes in 1909. “Winter in Kragero” (1925-31) (54”x59”) is a depiction of the city from a distance. The large yellow building at the right of the canvas is set next to the snow-covered roof of a house, neither painted in detail. A tall tree and a very slim tree stand on the diagonal slope that leads to the city. Kragero’s buildings rise up the hillside, and behind them are mountains. Although he frequently included scenes of towns in his work, these later paintings place the town at a distance.   

The Nazis designated Munch’s work as “degenerate art” in 1937, seized 82 of his paintings, and sold them to raise money.  The paintings were taken from German museums and Jewish collections.  A lost and then found Munch work “Dance on the Beach” (1906) sold at auction in 2023 for $22 million. Munch painted until he died on January 23, 1944. He willed to the city of Oslo his artwork and his collection of texts: 1150 paintings, 17,800 prints, 4,500 watercolors and drawings, 13 sculptures, his notebooks, and the plays and poems that he had written. The writings were unavailable to the public until January 1, 2015.  Munch was a major catalyst in the development of the Expressionist style that continues to be of major significance in the progress of 20th and 21st Century art. 

“Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye…it also includes the inner pictures of the soul.” (Edvard Munch)

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Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years. Since retiring to Chestertown with her husband Kurt in 2014, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL and the Institute of Adult Learning, Centreville. An artist, she sometimes exhibits work at River Arts. She also paints sets for the Garfield Theater in Chestertown.

The chrysanthemum was noted as early as the 15th Century BCE in China. The boiled roots of the plant were used in a remedy for headaches. Chrysanthemum sprouts and petals were included in salads and soups. The sweet odor and beautiful colors made the flower a popular component of garlands and bouquets. Since the chrysanthemum bloomed late when other flowers were fading, it became a popular fall flower. By 1630 CE, 500 cultivars had been created, and the estimated number of Chinese cultivars by 2014 was 7,000.  More than 20,000 varieties of the chrysanthemum are recognized world-wide. 

The chrysanthemum has been associated with fall for hundreds of years because it blooms in the cooler weather of fall and early winter when other flowers have faded or died. It also is associated with strength against harsh conditions. It is associated with longevity because it grows in abundance every year, fidelity and optimism because it returns year after year, and joy because it blooms in such a variety of colors.

Chinese poet Qu Yuan (340-278 BCE) was one of the first to write poetry about mums. In his poem “Li Sao” he wrote, “Drink dew from the magnolia in the morning and take autumn chrysanthemum’s falling petals as food in the evening.” Xiang Shengmo’s “White Chrysanthemums” (1654) (31”x15.5’’) (hanging scroll) illustrates the beauty of the flowers, leaves, stems, and buds of the mum. The upright strength of the mum is depicted in the composition. No stem breaks or bends, and buds branch out at all points. 

Xiang Shengmo was born during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), founded by the Manchus. Art and literature flourished during the period, but European art was beginning to influence traditional Eastern art. Xiang was fortunate to have grown up with his grandfather’s huge collection of historic Chinese painting and calligraphy.

Lang Shining (1688-1766) was born Guiseppe de Castiglione in Milan, Italy. He entered the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in Genoa at age 19. He remained a lay brother rather than becoming a priest. He worked in Lisbon for several years until Qianlong, the Emperor of China in the Qing dynasty, became interested in employing European Jesuits in China to train Chinese people in various fields, one of which was painting. Qianlong’s reign is considered to be the Golden Age of China. Castiglione reached Macau in August 1715 and Beijing a year later. He served the next three Qing emperors. He adopted the Chinese name Lang Shining.     

Castiglione/Shining’s “Chrysanthemums” (1723-35) (silk with tempera) is one of hundreds of his paintings of flowers, birds, landscapes, battle scenes, and portraits. Shining uses the Chinese style of composition, the delicate balance between objects and empty space. His details of the flowers, leaves, and birds are more specific without being overwhelming. Shining used the technique of chiaroscuro, strong contrast between light and dark, to create depth, for example, in the rendering of the leaves from light to dark greens The white chrysanthemum petals are delineated with light gray paint. Shining mastered the difficult process of painting on silk with tempera, a water-based paint. With too much water, the color runs through the silk, and there is no way to save the work. He died in Beijing in 1766 and is buried there. His obituary was written by the Emperor Qianlong, and a stone monument was erected.

The chrysanthemum arrived in Japan in the 5th Century CE, and the popularity of the plant spread throughout Japan, including royalty and commoners alike. The chrysanthemum was a symbol of autumn, harvest, longevity, rejuvenation, and good will. White chrysanthemums were used at funerals. Many families incorporated the chrysanthemum into their seals. The yellow chrysanthemum, the color of the sun, was adopted as the symbol of the Imperial family.  It is used in the Imperial Seal of Japan, and the Japanese throne is known as the Chrysanthemum Throne. The Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum is the highest honor the government can award.

“Chrysanthemums in a Deep Ravine in China” (1840s) is a woodcut print on a fan by the famous Japanese artist Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858). Hiroshige detailed the separate petals of the flowers, and they are large blossoms typical of the flowers cultivated in Japan. Hiroshige also includes a reference to a Japanese tale. The seated figure in the yellow box is a favored young attendant of the Emperor Mu Wang (1007-947 BCE) who was forced into exile by jealous rivals at court. Before the attendant was exiled, the Emperor taught his servant a Buddhist verse. It was said the young attendant wrote the verse on petals of chrysanthemums so he would not forget them. The petals became known as an elixir of eternal youth.

Pierre Louis Blancard, a French merchant, brought chrysanthemums from China in 1688. Scottish botanist Robert Fortune brought 250 new varieties from China and Japan in 1846. The Chrysanthemum became a symbol of friendship and love in France, England, and America. 

“White and Yellow Chrysanthemums in the Garden at Petit Gennevilliers” (1893) (29’’x34’’) was painted by Gustave Caillebotte. He and Claude Monet, both well-known painters, were great friends, drawn together by art and gardening. Caillebotte made six large, close-up paintings of chrysanthemums in 1893. The Victorians’ obsession with flowers led to the development of the language of flowers. White chrysanthemums, often included in funeral bouquets and wreaths, became associated with mourning. They also are associated with loyalty, honesty, and innocence. Golden yellow mums represent wealth, the sun, happiness, celebration, and longevity.  Pink mums represent attraction and romance–red mums, love and passion.  Violet mums were given to the ill, as a wish for return to health. Caillebotte delineates the individual petals, uses bright colors, and portrays sunlight light dancing across the canvas.  

“Chrysanthemums in the Garden at Giverny” (1897) was painted by Caillebotte’s fellow flower and garden enthusiast Claude Monet. Monet’s obsession with waterlilies is well-known, but he also was drawn to Japanese woodcuts made by Hokusai and others, who did not use European perspective. This piece is one of several in Monet’s “Large Flower” series, through which he experimented with the Japanese style. Monet’s garden was his pride and joy, and he designed his garden by color and contrast. He does not delineate each petal in each flower, but paints just enough to let the viewer know the flowers are mums. The painting is a luscious riot of colors.

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Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years. Since retiring to Chestertown with her husband Kurt in 2014, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL and the Institute of Adult Learning, Centreville. An artist, she sometimes exhibits work at River Arts. She also paints sets for the Garfield Theater in Chestertown.

The Feast of St Martin, or Martinmas, is celebrated on November 11. El Greco’s painting “St Martin and the Beggar” (1597-99) (76”x41”) (National Gallery of Art, DC) is a depiction of St Martin of Tours (c.316-397), a member of the Imperial cavalry of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great.  Martin was stationed in Gaul in the French city of Amiens. The story goes that on a cold winter day Martin came across a naked beggar. He took off his warm green wool robe and cut it in half to share with the poor man. That night Martin experienced a vision of Christ wearing the robe, Christ said to him, “What thou hast done for that poor man, thou hast done for me.” Another story tells that when Martin awoke, his cloak had been restored. In the painting, Martin rides a magnificent white Arabian horse, in keeping with his position. He wears black armor decorated with elaborate gold designs in the Damascene style developed by the craftsmen of Toledo, Spain. 

El Greco, was born on the island of Crete, off the Greek mainland. He was trained to be a Byzantine Greek icon painter. He later moved to Toledo, Spain, working there for the last 37 years of his life.  His Greek name Doménikos Theotokópoulos was hard to pronounce, so he was nicknamed El Greco (the Greek). He continued to paint elongated figures in the Byzantine style to accentuate the spiritual over the physical, apparent in the figure of the beggar. The viewer looks up at the two figures, and they seem monumental. In the background is the city of Toledo and the River Tagus that El Greco often included in paintings at the time. Also typical of El Greco is the use of intense colors and portrayal of a “moody” sky. This painting is considered one of his greatest.

Martin’s father was a senior military officer; thus, Martin was obligated at age 15 to join the army. Martin’s vision encouraged him in his Christian beliefs, and he was baptized at age 18.  “St Martin Renounces his Weapons” (1322-26), painted by Simone Martini of Siena, is a depiction of the time when Martin left the army. Young Martin stands before the seated Emperor Constantine. Martin holds a cross. Constantine holds a sword. The setting is in a military camp with elegant tents, members of the Imperial Guard in attendance, and horses set in a rocky landscape. 

The painting was commissioned by Robert d’Anjou, King of Naples, to fulfill the last wish of Cardinal Montefiore, who went to Buda, Hungary in 1307 and gained the crown of Hungary for Robert d’Anjou. St Martin was born in Hungary, and Montefiore considered Martin’s aid a significant factor in his success. On returning to his home in Assisi, Montefiore asked that a chapel dedicated to St Martin be built in the church of San Francesco in Assisi. This painting is one of ten depictions of the life of St Martin painted by Martini at Assisi. An early Renaissance artist, Martini and the Sienese artists were beginning to create fully three-dimensional works of art. 

Martin declared he was a soldier for Christ and became a monk, holy man, and ultimately the Bishop of Tours in 371. The hagiographer (biographer of lives of saints) Sulpicius Severus, knew Martin personally, and described several of Martin’s miracles: raising the dead, healing the sick, exorcism, and others. 

“St Martin Healing the Possessed Man” (1630) (48”x34”), painted by Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678), the leading Flemish painter after the deaths of Rubens and Van Dyke, could represent a healing of the sick, or perhaps an exorcism. In the classical Baroque style, Jordaens places Martin on a high porch and dressed as the Bishop of Tours. Below him are a number of persons who appear to have come for his help and his blessing. The naked and apparently possessed man writhes on a lower step. An old man and three women of varying ages look in fear at the figure wearing the gold and blue turban, red robe, and leather boots, and drawing his sword. Is he evil, perhaps a devil, or is he the executioner if the possessed man cannot be cured? He is the only figure in foreign dress. The setting is a compilation of gilded capitals, marble columns, and arches. Jordaens leaves the viewer confused about the setting and the cast of characters. He does present a solid and masterful image of St Mark.

During restoration an overpainted coat of arms was discovered at the base of the column. The coat of arms belonged to Antonius de Rorre, a Benedictine abbot, most likely the patron for this painting, the first Jordaens altarpiece. Jordaens would continue to grow as an artist as did his reputation as the successor of Rubens and Van Dyke. 

St Martin foresaw his death, and it is recorded that he said, “Allow me, my brethren, to look rather towards heaven than upon the earth, that my soul may be directed to take its flight to the Lord to whom it is going.”  “The Death of St Martin of Tours” (1490) was painted by German artist Derik Baegert (1440-c.1515). Although St Martin was born in c. 316 and died on November 8, 397 CE, at the age of eighty-one, he is depicted as a young man. Wearing a red robe, St Martin lies on a coffin covered by woven straw mat. He is mourned by a kneeling angel and four men. One with glasses reads from a scroll, the second reads from the Bible and sprinkles him with holy water, and a third prays. The elderly man kneeling in the front holds a gold candle that symbolically will light St Martins way to Heaven. Outside the windows is a Germanic landscape, and God receives the naked bodies of the faithful. The two-headed devil gesticulates at the foot of the coffin. St Martin reportedly stated, “Why are you standing here, cruel beast? You shall find no cause for grief in me!”  

Martin was called a Saint by popular acclaim in the Fifth and Sixth Centuries, before he was actually canonized. In the Middle Ages, Catholics began a forty-day fast on November 12, the day after St Martin’s Feast Day.  The period of fasting was called Martinmas, the spiritual preparation for Christmas. The harvest season had ended and the slaughtering of livestock, particularly cattle and pigs, for winter began on November 12 in Europe. Sausage and black pudding known as “Pig cheer” were gifts. Two popular dishes were Martinmas beef and Martinmas goose. When Martin tried to hide from those who wanted him to be the Bishop of Tours, he chose a barn housing a flock of geese. Their honking alerted his trackers, and he was forced to take the job. The goose is one of Martin’s symbols. 

In many European countries Martinmas began with the lighting of bonfires or candle-light processions. A member of the community would dress as St Martin and ride on horseback distributing gifts. The ashes from the fires then might be spread on the ground as fertilizer. Another feature of Martinmas was drinking the first wine of the season. “Wine on St Martin’s Day” (1566-68) is by Pieter Brueghel the Elder (c.1525/30-1569), one of the best-known painters of landscape and genre scenes in the Netherlands. It is his largest painting (3’10’’ by 8’10’’). The celebrating villagers are composed in a triangular mass that leads up to a large red barrel of wine. Typical of Brueghel’s paintings, peasants of all ages and types drink, eat, dance, brawl and otherwise celebrate the day. Astride his white horse, St Martin cuts his red cloak in half to give it to two crippled beggars. Brueghel is known for including the poor and disabled in his paintings. The whole scene takes place outside a local village. Houses and a church tower are placed at the right side of the scene. In the distance at the left are a large town with more substantial buildings and towers. They are the homes of the wealthy, but they are not here in this merry scramble of peasants.

St Martin was the patron saint of beggars, wool-weavers, and tailors, to name a few. Although opposed to violence, he was made patron saint of the US Army Quartermaster Corp. It considered Martin to be a role model for soldiers because of his military service, compassion, and selflessness. On February 7, 1997, the Quartermasters Corp established the military Order of St Martin. Armistice Day (now Veterans Day) marks the day of the ceasefire that ended World War I at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month.

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Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years. Since retiring to Chestertown with her husband Kurt in 2014, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL and the Institute of Adult Learning, Centreville. An artist, she sometimes exhibits work at River Arts. She also paints sets for the Garfield Theater in Chestertown.