Edvard Munch

Lithograph, 1895, Woll's first state (I/A/1) of seven, signed in pencil, dated '1896', with margins, on greyish-green card, printed by Lassally, framed

William Weston Gallery, London
Acquired from the above on May 11, 2003

Gustav Schiefler, Verzeichnis des graphischen Werks Edvard Munchs bis 1906, Oslo, 1974, no. 33, illus. p. 212
Gerd Woll, Edvard Munch - The Complete Graphic Work, London and Oslo, 2001, no. 39, illus. p. 244 (i)

The print is in good condition apart from a two and a half inch tear at lower right. A smaller repaired tear, approximately 1/4 inch, in the right margin. A tiny abrasion in the hair to the upper left of the fetus head. The edges with small nicks and creases, particularly in the corners. A small spot of soiling in the upper right margin. (A very tiny scuff in image at center right.). The verso in good condition aside from a few skin spots in the outer margins from removal of old hinging. Minor soiling and offprint.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

A pause when the world stops revolving. Your face encompasses the beauty of the whole earth.  Your lips, as red as ripening fruit, gently part as if in pain. It is the smile of a corpse.  Now the hand of death touches life.  The chain is forged that links the thousand families that are dead to the thousand generations to come.
Edvard Munch

Symbolic representation of the idea that the moment of conception in its mixture of lust and pain combines the sum of man’s fate which consists of joy and pain.
Gustav Schiefler

One of the most important images in late 19th /early 20^th century art, Munch’s Madonna blends the artist’s preoccupation with death, sex, beauty, love and power into one strikingly potent artistic statement. After several painted versions of this subject, Munch undertook its translation into lithography in 1895, choosing for the printed image to add a border which is not in any of the painted versions. The border serves as a device which not only expands the image, making it grander and more noticeable but also serves to add the important elements of the sperm and unborn fetus. The lithographs printed only in black are the earliest impressions of this image, because in 1902 Munch began to experiment with handcoloring the black stone impressions and then, ultimately, printing it in color.  

As controversial as this mysterious image was when first revealed to the public in 1893, it still continues to startle and be studied and analyzed as both a tribute to the female form as well as a symbolic form of her sexual, destructive nature. She conversely is manifesting both pleasure and pain, virginity and corruption, nurture and destruction, saintliness and wickedness, generations and decay, closeness and distance, homogeny and hybridization.  

Edvard Munch is celebrated as much for his prints as he is for his paintings, mainly because he continued to exploit and experiment with graphic techniques most of his artistic career.  Through his concentration on lithography, etching and woodcut, Munch was able to find the perfect marriage between meaning and artistic technique. Nowhere is this more evident than in the emblematic, sensuous Madonna.