Death And The Child, A Chilling Creation By A Tortured Artist
Edvard MunchEdvar Munch’s life was filled with death ever since he was a child.
Edvard Munch is perhaps best known for his famous piece The Scream, but it is another one of his works that many people believe to be haunted. This piece, Death and the Child, depicts the tragic moment in which a young girl discovers her mother dead in a bed.
Some have claimed that the eyes of the child follow them as they move about the room. This, however, can be attributed to a fairly common painting technique. In truth, much of the reason why many consider this painting to be haunted is due to the tragic circumstances of its painter.
As Kunsthalle Bremen wrote for Google Arts & Culture, Edvard Munch had to grapple with death from a very young age. His mother passed away when he was just six years old, and his sister died a few years later. When his father died in 1889, Munch fell into a deep personal crisis.
Near the end of his life, he wrote of his childhood: “My home was the home of illness and death. I have never gotten over the calamity there. It has also influenced my art.”
The themes of death and grief are pervasive throughout Munch’s work, but Death and the Child is widely regarded to be one of his most searing portrayals of grief. The painting focuses solely on the young girl’s pain — and perhaps, for some viewers, it is simply too much to handle.
