Edvard Munch – Still Life with Cabbage

Still Life with Cabbage

Still Life with Cabbage by Edvard Munch is an oil painting on wooden panel of 1926–1930, held under inventory number MM.M.00231 by the Munch Museum (Munchmuseet) in Oslo. The original measures 55 x 45.5 cm and lies across. Picked vegetables lie on a table spread with a pale cloth.

A large round cabbage takes the centre. It is painted in pale green and whitish tones, with bluish veins turning in broad circular strokes around the middle. It is the largest and lightest object in the work, and everything else arranges itself around it.

To the left of the cabbage lie reddish-brown onions or root vegetables, two larger ones in front and one behind, with dark stalks standing up from them. Their warm brown is the only genuinely warm note in the upper half of the scene.

Across the lower left, long dark green and blue-green leaves spill out in a wide arc, reading as leek or chard tops. They are painted with strong diagonal strokes running from the lower left corner towards the centre, and it is they that give movement to an otherwise still scene.

In front of the cabbage a yellow marrow lies horizontally, and to the right of the cabbage a shallow dish holds small dark purple fruits. At the right edge stands a blue and white cup or small bowl, the only worked object among all the vegetables.

Behind the table a wall or screen rises in upright stripes of ochre and dark green. The stripes run straight up and read like a curtain; because they are cool and dark, they push the light cabbage forward. Along the bottom edge a dark brown band closes the scene.

The colour moves between green and ochre, with reddish-brown and violet accents set between them. There is no strong side light; the objects are lit evenly, so the colour itself carries the whole effect rather than the shadow.

The handling is broad, wet and visible. Munch leaves the paint where he put it, without smoothing or correcting, and in places it is thin enough for the wood of the support to show through. That is exactly what makes the scene feel fresh and unfinished in the best sense.

The museum records the work as unsigned and dates it between 1926 and 1930. It was painted at Ekely, the property outside Oslo where Munch lived in his last decades and where he grew the vegetables we see here. This is not a scene from a shop but from his own garden.

The structure is simple: a horizontal table, and on it a diagonal of leaves running towards the round shape of the cabbage. The eye stops at the cabbage because it is the lightest, then slides down the leaves towards the left corner and returns by way of the reddish-brown onions.

Ours is hand-painted in oil on canvas, stroke by stroke, made to order and never printed. Said plainly: the original is on a wooden panel, while our reproduction is painted on canvas, the usual support for a hand-painted work of this kind. Because each is painted for its own order, no two match down to the detail. The hardest passage here is the cabbage, which must stay light and round without becoming a white patch.

The format lies across and the scene is domestic and quiet, so the painting sits best in a kitchen, a dining room, or any room where food is prepared and eaten. A quiet, pale wall or wood serves it best. Hang it at eye level in warmer, even light.

Nine sizes are available from 45 x 38 cm up to 223 x 179 cm, along with a custom size, 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.