Bathing Man

  • Artist: Edvard Munch
  • Creation date: (1918)
  • Object type: Painting

On display: Room 063 The Collection Exhibition - Life force

About

Bathers were a popular subject around the turn of the last century. Sojourns at health spas were fashionable and people pursued sports, nudism and the healthful effects of the natural environment. It was seen as cleansing to bathe in the sea, while the sun constituted a rejuvenating force of life.

In this painting we see a virile, muscular, naked man emerging from the cool, turquoise sea after a swim. The picture can be read as a reflection of the period’s “vitalism” – a world view that assumed all living things to be suffused with a magical life force. This philosophy found its pictorial expression in particular in dynamic motifs of naked men and youths.

As a cultural phenomenon, vitalism was a reaction against the decadence of the period, and against industrialism, with the great cities and ways of life it brought with it. Instead of cool-headed rationalism and scientific technology, vitalism preferred to emphasise instinct and intuition – and believed the key to a better life lay in nature and good health.

The picture was a gift from the artist to the National Gallery in 1927.

Text: Nina Denney Ness

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

Work info

Creation date:
(1918)
Other titles:
Badende mann (NOR)
Object type:
Materials and techniques:
Olje på lerret
Material:
Dimensions:
  • Width: 110 cm
  • Height: 160 cm
Keywords:
Classification:
Motif - type:
Inventory no.:
NG.M.01699
Cataloguing level:
Single object
Litteratur:
  • Hansen, Vibeke Waallann, et al. Edvard Munch i Nasjonalmuseet: en samlet oversikt. Redigert av Ustvedt, Øystein, et al. Oslo: Nasjonalmuseet, 2022. kat.nr. 54.
  • Flaatten, Hans-Martin Frydenberg. Edvard Munch. Høysommer i Hvitsten - Hans kunstnerliv på Nedre Ramme 1910-44. Vestby: Vestby kommune, 2016. 160, 185, 215.
  • Ustvedt, Øystein. «The Vitalist Impulse: Munch’s Renewal and the German Expressionists», i «Munch and Expressionism», utstillingskatalog, 2016. 77.
  • Stein, Mille, et al. «A contribution to the varnish history of the paintings by Edvard Munch at the National Museum and Munch Museum», i «Public paintings by Edvard Munch and his contemporaries. Change and conservation challenges», 2015. 265.
  • Woll, Gerd. Edvard Munch: samlede malerier: B. 3: 1909-1920. Oslo: Cappelen Damm, 2008. kat.nr. 1283.
  • Cross, Elizabeth. «Berlin to Ekely: The Last Forty Years», i «Edvard Munch:  The Frieze of Life», utstillingskatalog, 2004. 105–6.
  • Cross, Elizabeth, red. Edvard Munch: The Frieze of Life. Utstillingskatalog. Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria, 2004. kat.nr. 5.
  • Fredlund, Björn, red. Edvard Munch: Göteborgs konstmuseum, 28 september 2002 - 6 januari 2003. Utstillingskatalog. Göteborg: Göteborgs konstmuseum, 2002. 114–5.
  • Nasjonalgalleriet, red. Norske malerier. Katalog. Oslo, 1992. 345.
  • Nasjonalgalleriet, red. Katalog over norsk malerkunst: med 158 illustrasjoner. Oslo, 1968. kat.nr. 1303.
  • Nasjonalgalleriet, red. Katalog over norsk malerkunst. Oslo, 1950. kat.nr. 1084.
  • Nasjonalgalleriet, red. Norsk malerkunst i Nasjonalgalleriet. Oslo, 1933. kat.nr. 966.
  • Nasjonalgalleriet, red. Edvard Munch. Utstillingskatalog. Oslo, 1927. kat.nr. 231.
Acquisition:
Gift from the artist, accessioned 1927
Owner and collection:
Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design, The Fine Art Collections
Photo:
Høstland, Børre

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