Dark tree trunks close the composition at the left and the right, running the full height of the canvas. With us it is made as a hand-painted painting in oil on canvas.
Moonlight by Edvard Munch is a symbolist painting from 1895, held under accession number NG.M.02815 by the Nasjonalmuseet in Oslo: dark tree trunks close the composition at the left and the right, running the full height of the canvas. With us it is made as a hand-painted reproduction in oil, brushed onto canvas; you receive a photograph of the finished work for approval before dispatch, and you choose between ten sizes or a size of your own.
| Title: | Moonlight |
| Other titles: | Mesečina · Mjesečina · Mondschein · Chiaro di luna · Holdfény |
| Painter: | Edvard Munch (1863–1944) |
| Year: | 1895 |
| Original size: | 110 cm x 93 cm |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Painting style: | Symbolism |
| Location: | National Museum (Nasjonalmuseet) in Oslo (NG.M.02815) |
| Our reproduction: | a hand-painted work in oil, ten sizes from 45 x 38 cm to 220 x 180 cm, stretched on a stretcher bar, unframed |
Moonlight – Edvard Munch
What is shown?
Two trunks stand close together at the left, a single one at the right, and above it a dark green crown spreads out. In the upper left a heavy dark cloud drags across the sky. The sky is deep blue and green-blue, the water below it lighter and as smooth as metal. In the middle of that smoothness lies the moon’s column: straight, a little wider at its foot, and the only vertical besides the trunks. Along the shore runs a horizontal band of pale rounded stones in pink and white, and dark green grass closes the scene at the bottom. Everything is reduced to broad horizontal bands: sky, sea, stony shore and grass stack one above the other, and only the trunks and the column of light break that stacking. There is no figure, no boat and no house; the scene is empty, and that emptiness is what makes it quiet.
The paint layer of the original is thin and smooth, with no worked-up texture. Munch pulls the colour in broad horizontal drags that follow the bands of sky and water, and sets the trunks down in a few dark vertical strokes. It is that smoothness which makes the column of light read as though cut into the water rather than laid on top of it. The palette is narrow: the blues of the sky, the cool light of the water, the pink-white shore and the dark green below. The bands are set side by side rather than blurred, so colour carries the depth instead of perspective.
In our classification the work is listed under Symbolism.
How is our hand-painted version made?
This is a painting on canvas made with brush and oil colour, not with a printer. The painter works from a high-resolution reference and builds the scene from the back forward, layer by layer, so that the transitions between tones stay soft. Because every hand-painted copy is made for its own order, no two match down to the detail; small differences in the laying-on are a mark of the human hand and not a fault. For this work we have no photographs of our own from the workshop, so you will not find any on this page; the photograph of the finished canvas always reaches you for approval before dispatch.
Which size for which wall?
If you are unsure: 130 x 110 cm – that size is also the closest to the proportion of the original. The format is landscape, so it asks for width, and a narrow wall does not suit it. The smallest sizes belong in a hallway or among several smaller works, the middle ones are the real painting for the living room or a quiet corner of a bedroom, the largest are for large walls and rooms with enough distance. All ten sizes are made to order; none is held in stock as an already painted work. If none suits your wall, we paint to your measurements and keep the proportion of the reference; that is our painting made to measure.
Delivery and guarantee
Every example is made to order in our studio in Slovenia, so allow 15 to 45 days depending on size. We ship it stretched on a wooden stretcher bar and protected for transport, without customs inside the European Union; the frame is not included and is chosen separately with our 3D application, which is for frame choice only. Every canvas painting we make is made the same way, including paintings by famous painters from other periods; we write about Munch’s path in our article on Edvard Munch. As a work of art it is also a gift, so a gift voucher is available. The whole range is in the Edvard Munch gallery.
- Subject: Dark tree trunks close the composition at the left and the right, running the full height of the canvas.
- Original: oil on canvas, 1895, 110 cm x 93 cm, National Museum (Nasjonalmuseet) in Oslo, inv. no. NG.M.02815
- Ours: a hand-painted work in oil, ten sizes from 45 x 38 cm to 220 x 180 cm, stretched on a stretcher bar, unframed
- Worth knowing: There is no figure, no boat and no house; the scene is empty, and that emptiness is what makes it quiet
