Edvard MunchNorwegian, 1863–1944Rue de Rivoli
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Cambridge, United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the painting
Munch worked in Paris from 1889 to 1892 and created numerous images of the city’s broad boulevards. Painted just two years before his canonical composition, The Scream, this image of the Rue de Rivoli shows the Norwegian artist responding to the influences of French impressionism and later movements.The viewer is positioned on a high balcony, part of it shown at left as a tower of purple and green rectangles that seem to hover in space, tilting precariously over the street. Despite the high vantage point, the street lurches jarringly upward, leaving room for only a small triangle of sky. Activity on the street is highly abstracted: figures and carriages, represented in the foreground by smears of paint evocative of a photographic blur, appear in the background as a flurry of pointillist dots.
Harvard Art Museums
Particulars
- Accession number
- 1963.153
In the catalog
Sources
- Harvard Art Museums
- Image: Harvard Art Museums — © President and Fellows of Harvard College
Meanwhile, in the life of Edvard Munch
The whole life1889
First Solo Exhibition
He held his first solo exhibition of nearly all his works; the recognition brought him a two-year state scholarship to study in Paris under Léon Bonnat.
autumn 1889
Studies under Léon Bonnat in Paris
He arrived in Paris during the World's Fair and began attending Léon Bonnat's classes. He visited exhibitions and museums assiduously and experimented with Impressionism and Pointillism.
December 1889
Death of His Father and the Saint-Cloud Manifesto
News of his father's death after a stroke was a heavy blow: Munch fell into depression and withdrew into himself. His rethinking of life resulted in the "Saint-Cloud Manifesto" and the painting "Night in Saint-Cloud."
1892
The Berlin Circle: Strindberg and Przybyszewski
He immersed himself in the life of Berlin's artistic "underground," growing close to August Strindberg, Stanisław Przybyszewski, and Dagny Juel, who became his muse.
November 1892
"The Munch Affair": Scandal in Berlin
At the invitation of Adelsteen Normann he exhibited at the Union of Berlin Artists; the show provoked fierce controversy and was closed within a week. The conflict led to a split in the Union and the formation of the Berlin Secession.
December 1893
The "Love" Exhibition: Beginning of "The Frieze of Life"
At an exhibition on Unter den Linden he showed, among other works, six paintings under the title "Studies for a Series: Love" — the beginning of the cycle later named "The Frieze of Life — a Poem about Life, Love and Death."
