In October 1889, aged twenty-five, Edvard Munch left his native Norway for an extended stay in France, supported by an artist’s grant from the Norwegian State. The terms of his bursary stipulated that he enroll in a traditional art school, but he lasted only a few weeks in Léon Bonnat’s studio before storming out during a dispute over color.
Instead, for the next two and a half years, Munch steeped himself in French modernism, returning home only for summer holidays.
He absorbed the plein air ethos of Impressionism at the Galeries Durand-Ruel and Georges Petit; at the Salon des Indépendants, he encountered the latest work of Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Vincent van Gogh.
Edvard Munch | Summer Evening in Åsgårdstrand, 1891 |