EDVARD MUNCH
 &
T.F. ŠIMON




 T.F. Šimon: "Greetings from the Sea", 8x7 cm, ink on paper, 1904

 

T.F. Šimon: "Nude Girl with her Hands behind her Head",
drawing in pencil after Edvard Munch, 15,5 x 10 cm,
in a sketchbook from 1905.

 
 
Edvard Munch was a Norwegian artist (*Lřten [Hedmark] 12-12-1863 – + Ekely near Oslo, 23-01-1944).
The great Czech artist Tavik FrantiŠek Šimon (1877-1942) visited the Munch exhibition in Prague in 1905 and saw the works of art below on this page. It is clear he was impressed by the woman in the centre. Most probably he knew the artist's works already. A connection can be suggested between the early graphic work of Šimon and that of Munch, look at the webpage http://tfsimon.com/novakminiatures.html and you can link the connection by yourself. It is always hard to tell what influence one artist has on another. Resemblance can also be a coincidence. It is interesting to know that in 1905 after the Munch exhibition the Mánes Society held an important exhibition of artworks by T. F. Šimon in Prague.

 

Edvard Munch: "Woman in Three Stages", 1899
Lithograph, 46.2 x 59.2 cm
 

Edvard Munch: "Woman in Three Stages", 1894
Oil on canvas, 164 x 250 cm

 

Edvard Munch: "Women I", 1895
aquatint and drypoint, 308 x 272 mm

 

Edvard Munch: "Women I", 1895
 drypoint, line etching and open bite, 282-300 x 330-347 mm

 

Edvard Munch: "Ashes", 1894,
oil on canvas, 120 x 141 cm, National Gallery Oslo

The painting depicts the end of a love affair, with the man in despair and the woman indifferent.
The title "Ashes" refers to the burned-out log that runs along the picture's edge,
signifying the death of love.

 
In 1904 six paintings by Edvard Munch were included, amid a host of traditional and conventional paintings, in the 65th exhibition of the Society for the Arts, which was held in the Rudolfinum in Prague. According to contemporary reports, they were hidden away in some inconvenient spot, along with several other clearly modern works. The established Czech critics, highly perplexed by these paintings, were only capable of rejecting them. Nevertheless they did appeal to a small group of people of the Mánes Society of Artists who were responsible for an ambitious programme of international exhibitions, inaugurated in 1902 with a memorable exhibition of Rodin's works, and followed soon by a group of paintings from the French impressionist school.
 

 		 And so from the 5th of February to the beginning of March in 1905, following arrangements made with the great artist himself by letter, a major exhibition of Munch's work was held in Prague at the pavilion of the Mánes Society by the Kinsky Garden. About 80 oils and 40 graphic works were included, among them many of the artist's most important work. The core of the exhibition were the works presented in 1904 in Christiania, with the addition of the portraits displayed at Cassirer's in Berlin. Those members of the Mánes Society responsible for arranging the Prague exhibition included the graphic artist Jan Štenc, the painters Jan Preisler (who accompanied the artist during his stay in Prague) and MiloŠ Jiránek, the sculptor Stanislav Sucharda, and the architect Jan Kotéra, who designed the lay-out of the display. Munch took part in the opening of the exhibition. In the course of his three-day stay he got to know the city a little, met with many Czech artists and writers, and even did an improvised but very expressive portrait in drypoint (286x229 mm) of Jan Kotéra.

Edvard Munch: "Jan Kotéra", 1905,
drypoint, 286 x 229 mm,
Munch left with many fine memories of Prague, and often recalled his exhibition in later years. Soon after, on May 2nd 1905, he wrote in a letter to Hugo Kosterka, a translator of Scandinavian literature: "And I have wanted for some time now to thank you for the heart-felt reception that I met with you and my other friends in Prague. It was a rare pleasure for me to be among so many spirited and kind artists in the beautiful and remarkable city of Prague...I hope that I shall soon see Prague again - Prague - where the warmth of friendship encouraged me and gave me strength".
 

Edvard Munch: "The Dance on the Shore", 1900-02,
oil on canvas, 95,5 x 98,5 cm, National Gallery Prague
 
Two pictures in the exhibition were purchased: "Dance on the Shore", originally in the possession of the sculptor Stanislav Sucharda, but part of the collection of the National Gallery in Prague since 1929, and the "Grove of Students", which unfortunately disappeared during the Second World War.

Munch's exhibition in Prague in 1905 became a part of the history of Czech art - just because it revealed so forcefully the problematic questions of modern painting and its current struggles. MiloŠ Jiránek gave an accurate account of the relationship between Munch's work and the development of European painting, and pointed out his unique personal value for artists: "He shows us once again new possibilities and new perspectives, and extends the scope of modern art by the whole range of today's sorrows and grief, by cheerless gifts, but close to us, and precious, because they are the sorrows and grief of all of us modern men - and in this lies his new greatness".

Source: Edvard Munch og den tsjekkiske kunst. / Exhibition catalogue by Arne Eggum, Pĺl Hougen, Bente Torjussen. - Oslo, Munch-museet, 1971. - 130 p.

 
EDVARD MUNCH
 &
VINCENT VAN GOGH
  
The influence from Vincent van Gogh upon Edvard Munch is clear.
In 1885 Munch left for Paris where he came to know the work of Vincent.
For Van Gogh in Auvers see our extensive webpage http://www.tfsimon.com /auvers-sur-oise.html

 

"Village Street and Steps in Auvers", oil on canvas, 49.8 x 70.1 cm, late May, 1890.
City Art Museum, Saint-Louis, USA.

 

"Marguerite Gachet in the Garden", oil on canvas, 46.0 x 55.5 cm, June, 1890.
Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France.

 

"Two Women Crossing the Fields", oil on paper on canvas, 32.0 x 61.0 cm, July, 1890.
Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, USA.



www.tfsimon.com



In 1905 Munch was relatively unknown to the public.
Nowadays he is world famous and his works cost a fortune:


Edvard Munch: "Girls on a Bridge", 1902, 100 x 102 cm, Oil on Canvas
Sold for $7,7 Million at Sotheby’s New York
Impressionist & Modern Art, Part I
12. November 1996

Edvard Munch’s Seminal GIRLS ON THE BRIDGE
To Lead Sotheby’s November Sales of Impressionist & Modern Art 
Estimated in Excess of  $50 Million
AUCTION IN NEW YORK 14 NOVEMBER 2016
Sold: $54.487.500