Dimensions: support: 1187 x 1210 mm frame: 1371 x 1393 x 108 mm
Copyright: © Munch Museum/Munch-EllingsendGroup/DACS 2014 | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: Here we have Edvard Munch's "The Sick Child," housed at the Tate. The green and red tones give it such a feverish, unsettling atmosphere. What strikes you about this painting? Curator: The clasped hands are powerful. They remind me of medieval devotional images, the way they’re highlighted, almost like a visual prayer. Do you see how the bowed head echoes the fragility of life, a modern-day Pietà? Editor: I see the resemblance, but I hadn’t thought of it in such a religious context. Curator: It's not explicitly religious, but Munch taps into that deep well of human suffering and compassion that's been represented for centuries. It's a potent symbol of shared grief. Editor: That makes me appreciate the painting's emotional depth even more. Curator: Indeed, by referencing familiar visual language, Munch amplifies the personal tragedy with universal resonance.
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/munch-the-sick-child-n05035
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The Sick Child draws upon Munch’s memory of his sister Sophie’s death from tuberculosis at the age of fifteen. The model was a young girl who Munch had observed sitting distraught when he accompanied his father, a doctor, to treat her brother’s broken leg. Munch worked on the painting for a year, developing the rapid brushwork and vivid colour that suggest the painful evocation of a traumatic memory. ‘It was a breakthrough in my art’, he later wrote. ‘Most of what I have done since had its birth in this picture’. He made several versions over a period of forty years. This was the fourth version. Gallery label, January 2019
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