Ashes

The painting depicts the end of a love affair. The man is in despair, the woman indifferent. Ashes refers to the burned-out log running along the bottom of the picture, it signifies the death of love. Munch had a short affair with Millie Thaulow, the wife of a distant cousin. The woman in this painting resembles her, and the location depicted is in the woods, where the two would meet. Munch wrote in his diary, "I stooped and sat down… I felt as though our love … lay there on the hard stones… I felt that our love lay on the ground like a heap of ashes."