Edvard Munch – Consolation in the Forest

Consolation in the Forest

Consolation in the Forest by Edvard Munch is an oil painting on canvas of 1924, held under inventory number MM.M.00713 by the Munch Museum (Munchmuseet) in Oslo. The original measures 173 x 215 cm and stands upright. Two naked figures sit in the middle of a dense green wood, one bowed forward and the other leaning in to hold her.

The lower part of the canvas is taken by a large seated figure seen from behind and a little to the side. The body is a pale cream-yellow, the back bent forward, the head lowered and turned away so that no face is visible; at the crown the hair is a reddish orange. One arm lies across the lap. The figure is large and fills almost the whole lower third.

To its right is a second figure, painted in greenish grey, leaning toward the first and reaching around her. The two bodies are entangled and hard to separate; one is holding the other. Between them is a pale grey-blue oval outlined in dark red.

Strong red-brown contour lines run through both bodies, drawn over colour already laid down. They describe arms, shoulders and backs, and they are the most assertive marks anywhere on the canvas; without them the bodies would dissolve into the greenery. Munch painted first and drew afterwards.

The background is dense forest. Blue-green and emerald foliage rises to the top edge with thin dark trunks standing among it; left of centre is a tall pale trunk and beside it a reddish-brown one. The upper area is a dark blue-green with lighter yellow-green patches, and to the left spreads a paler yellow-green mass. In the lower left corner is a mauve-violet patch. The ground is green with darker blue-green strokes. The motif exists twice, both of 1924 and both in the Munch Museum: our canvas at 173 x 215 cm and the smaller MM.M.00463 at 120.5 x 100 cm.

The handling is late and fluid. The paint is thin, the strokes long and visible, and in places the canvas shows through them. Drips of thinned colour run down from the upper area and were never wiped away. The greenery is set with a broad brush in long sweeps, while the bodies are built with a denser touch and then outlined. Nothing is smoothed; the picture looks made quickly and in one go.

Ours is a fine art reproduction painted by hand in oil on canvas, stroke by stroke, and never printed. Because each canvas is painted for its own order, no two match down to the detail; the small differences in the paint are the mark of a hand rather than a flaw. As hand-painted wall art this motif is demanding in the contour lines, since each has to stay a single stroke; corrected, the bodies lose their shape and sink back into the green.

Because the format is upright and the scene overwhelmingly green, the painting needs a tall quiet wall. It works in a living room, a hallway or beside a staircase where there is height to spare. The green needs a warm light ground; on a green or blue wall the scene merges with the room and loses its depth. Hang it at eye level or a little below, since the figures are seated. The light should be warm, as a cool lamp pushes the green toward grey and the two bodies lose the only warmth in the picture.

Ten sizes are available from 40 x 50 cm up to 205 x 249 cm, along with a custom size, and every canvas can be ordered framed or unframed. More of the artist is in the Edvard Munch gallery, and we write about his life and painting on the Edvard Munch blog.