Ashes

  • Artist: Edvard Munch
  • Creation date: (1895)
  • Object type: Painting

Not on display

About

Against a dark background of slender tree trunks, a woman in pale clothing stands facing us. Her wide eyes, loose hair and open bodice tell us of what has happened. With her hands high on her head, her posture is expressive of despair, but also of power and victory. In the lower left quarter of the picture sits a man with his back turned to the woman. He is withdrawn and holds his hands dejectedly to his head. The only contact between the two after what has just happened in the sombre woods is through her long, red hair.

“I felt our love lying on the earth like a heap of ash,” Munch wrote on a lithographic version of the motif. This explains both the picture’s title and the stylised tree trunk in front of the man. Also in its use of colour and form, this picture is full of contrasts and tension: open and closed shapes, straight and curved lines, dark and light colours.

This painting is possibly one of Munch’s most pessimistic on the subject of male – female relationships. It depicts the man as weak and the loser, while the woman is strong and victorious. In this work Munch expresses both personal experience and typical aspects of the complex contemporary view of woman: “The woman who is at one and the same time a saint – a whore – and unhappily devoted.”

The painting was purchased for the museum in 1909.

Text: Frithjof Bringager

From "Edvard Munch in the National Museum", Nasjonalmuseet 2008, ISBN 978-82-8154-035-54

Artist/producer

Edvard Munch

Visual artist, Painter, Graphic artist, Photographer, Drawing artist

Born 12.12.1863 in Løten, Hedmark, death 23.01.1944 in Oslo

Edvard Munch worked as an artist for over sixty years. He was creative, ambitious and hardworking. He produced nearly two thousand paintings, hundreds of graphic motifs and thousands of drawings. In addition, he wrote poems, prose and diaries. The Scream, Madonna, Death in the Sickroom and the other symbolist works from the 1890s have made him one of the most famous artists of our time.

"Don't become an artist!"

Edvard wanted to become an artist early on, and there was no doubt that he had talent. But his father refused to allow him to follow his dream, so Edvard began studying engineering. But already after one year he chose to defy his father, and switched from engineering college to the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry in Kristiania, now Oslo.

A talented and provocative bohemian

It was obvious to everyone in the Norwegian art community that the young man showed rare talent. In 1883, at the age of 20, he debuted at Høstutstillingen (The Autumn Exhibition). In 1886, Munch became acquainted with author and anarchist Hans Jæger, a leading figure in the Kristiania bohemian community. The bohemian community convinced Munch that the arts had to renew themselves to reach people and to have relevance in their lives. In the same year he exhibited the painting The Sick Child. This generated debate!

Courage led to breakthrough

Some acclaimed The Sick Child a work of genius, while others deemed it unfinished and unworthy of exhibition. Today it is considered to mark Munch's breakthrough. It was here that demonstrated the independence and willingness to break fresh ground.

From this point until his final brush strokes, his artistic practice can be summed up in just word: experimentation. Munch did not care about established "rules" for so-called good art. His techniques in both painting and graphics were innovative.

From people's emotional life to agriculture and landscape

Henrik Ibsen's plays about humanity's existential challenges inspired Munch. Themes such as death, love, sexuality, jealousy and anxiety were central to his early images. Some themes sprang from personal experience. For example, Death in the Sickroom and The Sick Child are linked to his memory of his mother and sister's illnesses and early deaths.

After 1910, Munch chose a quieter and secluded life. At his own farms at Ekely in Oslo and in Hvitsten, he found entirely new motifs, such as agriculture, working life and landscapes. Man in the Cabbage Field is a typical example from this period.

Work info

Creation date:
(1895)
Other titles:
Aske (NOR)
Object type:
Materials and techniques:
Olje på lerret
Material:
Dimensions:
  • Width: 141 cm
  • Height: 120.5 cm
Keywords:
Classification:
Motif - type:
Acquisition:
Aquired with funds from A.C. Houen Endowment 1909
Inventory no.:
NG.M.00809
Part of exhibition:
Becoming Edvard Munch: Influence, Anxiety and Myth, 2009
Livets dans. Samlingen fra antikken til 1950, 2011 - 2019
Eduard Munch, 1898
Edvard Munch udstilling, 1904
Edvard Munch - Maleriudstilling, 1897
Edvard Munch, 1951
Ausstellung Edvard Munch, 1954
Edvard Munch. Peintures, oeuvre gravé, 1952
Edvard Munch, 1951
Edvard Munch, 1952
Europäischer Expressionismus, 1970
L'Expressionisme Europeen, 1970
Edvard Munch. Symbols & Images, 1978 - 1979
Kunst in Berlin 1648-1987, 1987
Visions du nord. Lumière du monde, lumière du ciel, 1998
Edvard Munch. I oss er verdener, 2019 - 2020
Edvard Munch. The modern life of the soul, 2006
Edvard Munch, 1895
Edvard Munch, 1905
Edvard Munchs Maleriudstilling, 1901
Werken von Edvard Munch in Kösen, 1906
Edvard Munch: An Exhibition of Paintings, Etchings, Litographs, 1951
Edvard Munch: An Exhibition of Paintings, Etchings, Litographs, 1952
Fyns Stiftsmuseums Edvard Munch udstilling, 1955
Ausstellung Edvard Munch, 1955
Taidetta Berliinissä Kehityksen tie 1892-1960, 1961
Berlin-kunst. Stadier i utviklingen fra 1892 til i dag, 1961
Edvard Munch, 1950
Edvard Munch og den tsjekkiske kunst, 1971
150 Jahre Norwegische Malerei, 1964
Edvard Munch, 1895
Edvard Munchs Udstilling, 1909
Kunstforeningens Edvard Munch udstilling, 1955
Edvard Munch, 1927
Edvard Munch, 1951
Berlin, Ort der Freiheit in die Kunst, 1960
Edvard Munch, 1950
Im Lichte des Nordens. Skandinavische Malerei um die Jahrhundertwende, 1986 - 1987
Dreams of a summer night. Scandinavian painting at the turn of the century, 1986
Post-impressionism. Cross-currents in European painting 1880-1906, 1979 - 1980
Edvard Munch, 1987 - 1988
Edvard Munch. Dal realismo all’espressionismo, 1999 - 2000
Munch 150, 2013
Edvard Munch, 1896
Edvard Munch, 1927
Edvard Munch, 1951
Edvard Munch, 1950
Edvard Munch, 1950
Edvard Munch, 1950
Edvard Munch: An Exhibition of Paintings, Etchings, Litographs, 1951
Edvard Munch. Malarstwo i grafika, 1959
Lumières du Nord, La peinture scandinave, 1987
Fünfte Kunstausstellung der Berliner Secession, 1902
[Edvard Munch], 1903
Collectiv-Ausstellung von Edvard Munch, 1907
Edvard Munch: An Exhibition of Paintings, Etchings, Litographs, 1951
Edvard Munch: An Exhibition of Paintings, Etchings, Litographs, 1951 - 1952
Berlin, Ort der Freiheit in die Kunst, 1960
Berlin, Ort der Freiheit in die Kunst, 1960
Secession. Europäische Kunst und die jahrhundertwende, 1964
1864-1964: Centenary Exhibition, 1964
Nordiske stemninger. Nordisk maleri ved århundreskiftet, 1987
The masterworks of Edvard Munch, 1979
Tradisjon og fornyelse. Norge rundt århundreskiftet, 1994 - 1995
Edvard Munch and European Modernism, 2009
Cataloguing level:
Single object
Owner and collection:
Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design, The Fine Art Collections
Photo:
Børre Høstland/Lathion, Jacques