Art: Madman Munch

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Jealousy & Sensuality. Munch's development of his other theme—man's impotence before the power of ferocious womanhood—would seem ludicrous if it had not so obviously wrung anguish from the painter, driven him close to madness. The exact identification of the woman who so long tantalized Munch has never been officially revealed, but art historians now believe that the redhead who appears as a flaming, enigmatic image throughout Munch's work was a young Norwegian girl named Dagney Juell. She was Munch's model in Berlin before she moved over to live with Swedish Dramatist August Strindberg, finally married the best friend of both men, Polish Poet Stanislas Przybyszewski. One of Munch's most powerful paintings of the redhead was Jeatiousy, in which he depicted her as a salacious wanton, with an enigmatic, glowering father at left. Between the two, man—depicted as Poet Przybyszewski—is held transfixed in agonized suspension. Even more ruthless is Munch's lithograph Nude with Red Hair, showing her as sensuality personified, with screaming orange hair and glaring green eyes.*

While Munch's two obsessions drove him to greatness, he never learned to live with them. Shortly before his death at the age of 80, after he had won both honors and renown, he wearily told his doctor: "The last part of my life has been an effort to stand up. My path has always been along an abyss."