Artwork
Death Struggle
Death Struggle is an oil painting by Edvard Munch. It dates from 1915 and is held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
Key iconographic elements include a bottle, pillows, and the stark shadows cast against the wall, which contribute to the work's intense atmosphere.
Edvard Munch's 1915 oil painting portrays a somber genre scene centered on the moment of death. The composition depicts a dying man lying in a bed, attended by a woman who appears to be in prayer beside him. Key iconographic elements include a bottle, pillows, and the stark shadows cast against the wall, which contribute to the work's intense atmosphere.
These visual components collectively represent the gravity of mortality and the intimate, yet distressing, struggle of the final moments of life.
Technique & Style
Death Struggle (1915) is an oil painting on canvas measuring 140.3 × 182.4 cm, created by Edvard Munch for the Statens Museum for Kunst. The work belongs to the genre‑scene category and was executed using oil paint on a canvas support. Its composition depicts a dying figure, a bed, a man, a woman, a bottle, a prayer, shadow, wall and pillow. The large scale and arrangement of these elements define its formal qualities within the genre‑scene tradition.
History & Provenance
Death Struggle was painted by Edvard Munch in 1915, as indicated by the work’s date and its inception recorded in Wikidata. The oil-on-canvas genre scene remained in Munch’s possession until it entered the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst (National Gallery of Denmark), where it is currently housed. No surviving documentation mentions a specific commission, and the sources do not record any intermediate owners between the artist and the museum.
Overview
Edvard Munch, a Norwegian painter, created Death Struggle in 1915 using oil paint. This work exemplifies his consistent exploration of profound emotional and psychological states. The painting is part of the collection at Statens Museum for Kunst, reflecting a period in Munch's career where personal experiences often informed his artistic output.
Context
Death Struggle emerges from an artistic practice deeply rooted in Edvard Munch's personal history, which included significant experiences of illness and loss during his childhood. Throughout his career, Munch consistently delved into the complexities of human emotion and psychological distress, a thematic preoccupation evident in many of his works, including his renowned painting The Scream. This personal background frequently informed the intense emotional landscape of his art.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Edvard Munch ( MUUNK; Norwegian:; 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter.
