Edvard Munch

Der Ziegenwagen was painted in autumn 1903, during Munch’s stay in Lübeck, Germany, at the family home of his patron Dr Max Linde, and depicts Linde’s children playing in front of their house, an episode that is recorded in a contemporary photograph (fig. 1). Dr Max Linde (1862-1940) was an ophthalmologist and one of Munch’s devoted patrons. The artist first met Linde in 1902, and later that year was commissioned to produce graphic work for the Linde Portfolio of etchings of his house and garden and the members of his family. In 1903 Linde published a book Edvard Munch und die Kunst der Zukunft and, alongside Gustav Schiefler, was to become the artist’s main supporter in Germany. Munch enjoyed his stays at Linde’s house, which he visited on several occasions (fig. 2), and on 14^th December 1904 he wrote to his aunt: ‘Here in Lübeck I live very well quietly working, no Norwegians – I have painted a large self-portrait, and I think I could do a lot of painting here – Dr Linde’s house is an excellent place to stay’ (quoted in Iris Müller-Westermann, Munch by Himself, London, 2005, p. 78).

Depicting Linde’s children at play in front of their family home, accompanied by their nanny, Der Ziegenwagen has an atmosphere of innocence and joy that is rarely found in Munch’s works of this period. The artist himself considered the years after 1902 the unhappiest and most difficult, yet most productive ones of his career. His portraits from this time depict tormented, angst-ridden individuals, and the same sense of anxiety of the human condition is present in his landscapes. The joyful atmosphere of Linde’s home certainly had a positive influence on the artist’s state of mind, and it was probably only while staying with his family that Munch executed works of a such optimistic character. It was during his stay in Lübeck in 1904 that he executed some of his major works, including a monumental portrait of his patron (fig. 4) and a self-portrait (fig. 5), both relatively formal full-length portraits conveying an air of poise and self-assurance. Dr Linde is depicted with upper-class attributes such as a walking stick, hat and gloves, while Munch represented himself with a painter’s paraphernalia, assuming an alert, self-confident pose.

During the summer of 1904, Munch stayed at Linde’s house, painting a frieze his patron had commissioned for his children’s room. When the work was finished, however, Linde rejected it, judging its subject matter unsuitable for children. Alongside the present work, Dr Linde commissioned from Munch several other paintings of his family members, including a portrait of his four sons (fig. 3), of his wife Marie Linde, and of his son Lothar standing in a garden. In comparison with these other portraits, executed in a more formal manner implying that the models posed for the artist, the present work displays a more spontaneous character. Painted in quick brushstrokes, Der Ziegenwagen depicts the four sons of Dr Linde, wearing identical hats, two of them seated in a goat drawn carriage, the other two standing around it. The style of execution emphasises the joyful quality of the scene the artist witnessed, creating an impression of a passing glance, rather than a posed portrait.

Once painted, the present work remained in Linde’s house in Lübeck, and after his death in 1940 was passed on to his descendants. Having remained in Linde’s family until now, Der Ziegenwagen was never publicly shown or published until it was ‘rediscovered’ and exhibited in Lübeck in 2003. Prior to this exhibition, the existence of this picture was only documented in a letter from Linde’s second son Theodor, written to Edvard Munch on 10^th January 1941, after the death of his father: ‘… the colourful oil painting of our goat carriage is hanging at my brother Helmuth’s place in Dortmund…’ (quoted in Edvard Munch und Lübeck (exhibition catalogue), op. cit., p. 84, translated from the German). Having come to light after many decades, this work presents not only an important link in his œuvre, but also a valuable document of the artist’s life.

Fig. 1, Photograph of Max Linde’s children and their nanny in front of their family home

Fig. 2, Photograph of Edvard Munch in Dr Max Linde’s garden in Lübeck, 1902

Fig. 3, Edvard Munch, The Four Sons of Dr Max Linde, 1903, oil on canvas, Lübeck Museum

Fig. 4, Edvard Munch, Dr Max Linde, 1904, oil on canvas, Kunstmuseum des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt, Moritzburg

Fig. 5, Edvard Munch, Self-Portrait with Brushes, 1904, oil on canvas, Munch-museet, Oslo