3-050-275 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Melancholy, probably 1892. Additional Info: The dark shoreline curves diagonally in across the picture. On the jetty in the background we can make out three figures. The man in the foreground has turned his back on them. His head and his drooping shoulders stand out distinctly against the pale beach, a shape that is reiterated in the large boulders. The colours, primarily melancholy shades of blue, are softened by the summer night. Here we see a clear symbolist tendency in the simplification and stylisation of form and colours. The picture’s thematic content refers to Munch’s friend Jappe Nilssen and his unhappy love life around this time. The landscape is based on the coastline at asgardstrand.