Edvard Munch
After 1902 Munch’s lithographs were mainly drawn on paper. There were, however, some exceptions, such as this portrait of Eva Mudocci from 1903, executed directly on stone using a variety of lithographic techniques with lithographic crayon, tusche, and scraping tools.
Eva Mudocci was a famous British violinist who, together with the pianist Bella Edwards, had concert tours throughout Europe, including Norway.
Edvard Munch met her in Paris in 1903. The two of them became close friends. Initially the relationship was of an erotic nature, but in time became more like a brother-and-sister relationship. From 1903 to 1908 she was one of Munch’s closest confidantes. Munch himself called the lithograph Madonna and Madonna with Brooch, connecting it to the Madonna motif from the 1890s. The Madonna motif’s clearly sexual contents have been reduced in this portrait to undertones in a beautiful and soulful face.
Mudocci became an ideal figure and a muse for the artist, and this portrait, with its lyrical atmosphere and musical rhythms, is undoubtedly one of the finest of Munch’s many female portraits.
See you tomorrow!