Description
On the Veranda
On the Veranda by Edvard Munch is an oil painting on canvas of 1902 that carries inventory number NG.M.00810 at the National Museum (Nasjonalmuseet) in Oslo. It measures 115.5 x 86.5 cm and shows a wooden veranda whose railing runs diagonally into the depth of the picture. Two figures stand at the right, turned away from the viewer: a woman in a long dark dress and hat, and beside her a smaller figure in lighter clothes. At the left a climbing plant with pale leaves grows over the rail, and beyond it a garden opens with a slender young spruce at its centre, low trees and a pale sky. At the far right the corner of a roof appears. This is the version our hand-painted reproduction follows.
The composition is built on the railing: its diagonal cuts the canvas in two and places the viewer on the veranda, just behind figures who are themselves looking out. The scene is therefore about looking rather than about the people; we see no faces, the bodies are reduced to two dark planes and one light one, and that takes their individuality away and makes them part of the view.
The work belongs to Munch’s years around 1900, when alongside the great Frieze of Life motifs he was also painting gardens, verandas and houses by the shore. He laid the colour on in broad visible strokes, in places thin enough for the weave of the canvas to show through, and that is what gives the picture its sense of light without hard shadows.
Our reproduction is hand-painted throughout in oil on canvas, stroke by stroke and always to order; it is not a print. Because every canvas is made individually, tones and strokes differ slightly from one copy to the next.
The painting is bright and pleasantly everyday, so it works well in a living room, a dining room or a hallway, where it brings a sense of a view out. Its greens, greys and creams sit with light wood and white walls; because the diagonal of the railing leads the eye into depth, the picture visually lengthens a narrow space and is a good choice for a corridor or a stairwell.
It is available in ten sizes, from a smaller horizontal format to a large canvas, and we can also make it to a size you specify. Other works by the same artist are among the paintings of Edvard Munch, and his life and work are covered in the biography of Edvard Munch.
| Year: | 1902 |
| Original size: | 115.5 cm x 86.5 cm |
| Style: | Expressionism |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Located at: | National Museum (Nasjonalmuseet), Oslo |
