Puberty

A young girl sits naked on the edge of a bed. With her arms crossed in front of her, as if attempting to hide her nakedness, she appears awkward and insecure. The striking dark shadow she casts on the wall behind her reinforces the impression of something disturbing. Ingrid Langaard provides an insightful description of Puberty in her monograph on Munch:

With her legs pressed together, her gaze transfixed in fear and horror of the unknown that will overcome her body, she adopts an instinctive posture in an effort to halt the process that will turn her at a stroke from a child into a woman (...) The picture shows a deep psychological understanding of emotional reactions that we imagine would be alien to a man -- a young girl's dawning awareness of the mystery of her sex. (I. Langaard 1960, 28)

Munch painted four versions of Puberty. The first (Woll M 141), from as early as 1886, was destroyed in a fire at the house of its owner, Axel Thoresen. Munch returned to the subject in Berlin in the 1890s, producing two relatively similar paintings in 1894, which now belong to the National Museum and the Munch Museum respectively. The Munch Museum's version (Woll M 346) dates from early 1894, the one in the National Museum from a little later that year. The former has visible underdrawing, is on unprimed canvas, and is somewhat sketchy compared with the National Museum's version, which appears more developed (Woll 2008; Topalova-Casadiego 2012). A fourth, more colourful and significantly smaller version that Munch produced some twenty years later is also in the collection of the Munch Museum (Woll M 1097). In addition to the paintings, Munch created a lithographic version in 1894 and an etching in 1902 (Woll G 14; Woll G 186).

The similarities to an etching by the Belgian symbolist artist Félicien Rops, The Greatest Love of Don Juan, were remarked by Munch's contemporaries. Munch claimed, however, that he had painted the first version of Puberty before becoming aware of Rops's picture. "No doubt you remember 'The Girl on the Edge of the Bed', which you owned and which burnt with your house," Munch writes to Puberty's former owner, the doctor Axel Thoresen, in 1929.

I would like a written description of the picture -- You know that I painted it again and it is now hanging in the gallery -- I know it to be an accurate reproduction of your picture. You surely remember it -- the girl sitting just as she is in the one in the gallery, with a large dark shadow on the wall -- Her hands between her knees in chasteness. She is sitting in the middle of a bed (...) I would like to have this description because the strange coincidence is that Felicien Rops has done a small etching that is closer to my picture than I would have thought possible, if it were by anyone else, I would swear it was blatant theft. The picture in the gallery was painted in 1894. (Letter dated 14 January 1929, PN 897)

The letter confirms that the National Museum's picture was painted in 1894, and that it reproduces the one from 1886 that was lost in the fire. The National Gallery bought the painting from an exhibition at Blomqvist in 1909. Determined to make a substantial purchase from the exhibition, the National Gallery's director, Jens Thiis, wrote to the Ministry of Culture requesting financial support: "I would not hesitate to describe the impending Munch exhibition as a major (...) event in Norwegian cultural life (...) His pictures are sought after by public and private collectors and his prices have risen enormously" (letter from Thiis to the Ministry, 11 March 1909). Four days later, he wrote again, this time to say that, in consultation with various artists, he had drawn up a list of five pictures that were worthy of purchase, one of which was *Puberty *(letter from Thiis to the Ministry, 15 March 1909, 505 in correspondence log). When it entered the collection, the picture had the title *Nat, ung pike paa sengekanten *(Night, Young Girl on the Edge of the Bed). At different times, the lithographic version has gone by three different titles in addition to Puberty, namely: *Om natten *(At Night), *Den unge modellen *(The Young Model), and *Ung pike *(Young Girl) (inscription on one print) (Clarke 2012, 34). The first, lost, version of the painting from 1886 was included in Munch's exhibition at the Studentersamfundet (Students' Association) in 1889, probably as catalogue number 39, with the title *Modell for første gang *(Model for the First Time).

*Puberty *and The Day After (Nasjonalmuseet, NG.M.00808) were purchased for the National Gallery's collection at the same time. Although the latter was also developed in the mid-1880s, two early versions were lost in the years that followed. Certain aspects of the 1894 versions of *Puberty *and *The Day After *relate them to 1880s realism. In terms of content, however, *Puberty *can also be linked to the symbolism of the 1890s, with its central interest in depictions of the various stages of life, from birth and self-awareness to old age and death. Today, *Puberty *is one of Munch's best known works. It has been shown in many exhibitions and is widely discussed in the Munch literature. In 2012, the Munch Museum devoted an exhibition and publication to its various themes and aspects (Ydstie (ed.) 2012).

Vibeke Waallann Hansen The text was first published in Edvard Munch in the National Museum. A comprehensive overview (Oslo: National Museum, 2022).

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