A summer night in a coastal village, a cluster of figures in front of a house with lit windows, and one white figure standing apart from the rest, all of them holding their hands to their ears. With us it is made as a hand-painted painting in oil on canvas.
The Storm is a work by Edvard Munch: a summer night in a coastal village, a cluster of figures in front of a house with lit windows, and one white figure standing apart from the rest, all of them holding their hands to their ears. With us it is made as a hand-painted reproduction in oil on 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: | The Storm |
| Painter: | Edvard Munch |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Our reproduction: | hand-painted oil on canvas, 10 sizes from 60 x 40 cm to 210 x 148 cm, custom on request |
What we deliberately do not state here: the record of the institution that holds the work could not be read – its collection is closed to automated retrieval. You will therefore find no year of execution, no collection name and no accession number on this page. We say what is visible on the canvas and nothing beyond it; when the record becomes reachable, we will add it.
The Storm – Edvard Munch
What is shown?
The scene shows a summer night in a coastal village. In the foreground on the left stands a cluster of about six figures, pressed close together, in white, cream, red-brown and dark clothing. Several of them have raised their hands to their heads. In the middle of the foreground stands a single figure in a long white dress, separated from the group, also with hands at the head, turned towards the viewer. The faces are barely indicated, without features, so nobody can be identified; there are no names either on the canvas or in the record, and we declare none of the figures to be a particular person. The group and the white figure face the same direction, yet there is no contact between them.
What is painted on the original?
The sky occupies the upper third and is a pale grey-violet, painted thin and without clouds. Right of centre stands a large light house of two storeys whose windows burn a warm yellow-orange; that is the only strong light on the canvas. On the left stands a smaller, darker brownish building. Between and around them are dark green-black trees and shrubs, and one tall tree stands directly in front of the lit house and partly hides it. The ground is stony, painted in muted greens, greys and pinkish browns. In the lower right corner there is a signature. The house with lit windows is the only place in the scene where life is happening, and yet nobody can be seen inside it.
Why does this painting matter?
Symbolism works here through a single gesture repeated by every figure at once. Hands at the ears are not a response to a visible event: there is no rain on the canvas, no lightning, no bent trees, only a quiet sky. It is exactly that gap between title and scene that keeps the work interesting, and it is why it appears in surveys of the late nineteenth century as an example of painting beginning to show an inner state instead of an outward happening. As a symbolist painting, The Storm stands close to the Munch motif that became his best known.
What does the painting mean?
The title promises weather and the scene does not show it. What we see is a group of people holding together and one person standing outside it; all of them make the same gesture, but the white figure makes it alone. The house behind them is lit and empty. A great deal can be read from that, but we keep to what is visible: the storm of the title is something the scene does not show, and that is precisely why each viewer puts it there. Anyone who sees a particular person or story in the white figure is adding it; the canvas does not confirm it.
Where does The Storm sit among Munch’s works?
The gesture of hands at the head is rare in Munch, and The Storm is its earliest group example. The same gesture returns on a single figure in The Scream, where the sky, instead of quiet, is broken into bands of colour. The cluster of faces turned towards the viewer repeats in Anxiety and in Evening on Karl Johan, both times without hands at the ears. A night scene without action is in Moonlight. If you were looking for the scene with a single figure on a bridge, that is The Scream and not this work. The whole range is in the Edvard Munch gallery.
How is our hand-painted version made?
This is a canvas painting made with brush and oil colour, not a printer. The painter works from a high-resolution reference and builds the scene from the back forward: first the pale sky, then the dark mass of trees, and last the figures and the windows. The windows are decisive here because they are the only warm light on the canvas; overdone, the scene loses its night character, and darkened, it loses its one centre. Because everything is done by hand, every hand-painted copy is its own, and two examples are never quite alike. 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 91 cm. That is the size at which the figures become large enough to read one by one while still fitting an ordinary wall. The format is landscape and the scene carries its weight left of centre, so leave it a little room on the right. The 60 x 40 and 70 x 50 cm sizes belong in a hallway or a group of smaller works; 90 x 60 and 100 x 70 cm sit well above a chest of drawers; 110 x 80 and 150 x 110 cm are the real painting for the living room above a sofa; 180 x 130, 200 x 140 and 210 x 148 cm are for large walls and rooms with enough distance. Because the scene is dark with a single warm light, it works best on a light wall and in a room that is not too brightly lit. All ten sizes are made to order; no size here is held in stock as an already painted work.
Custom size, stretcher bar and frame
If none of the ten sizes suits your wall, we paint to your measurements and keep the proportion of the reference, so the group and the white figure are not pushed too close together; that is our painting made to measure. Every example arrives stretched on a wooden stretcher bar, ready to hang; the stretcher bar can be left off at the order. On this page the canvas is offered without a frame; the frame is chosen separately with our 3D application, which shows every one of our frame profiles on this motif: gold, silver, black, white and natural wood. The application is for frame choice only. If you would like to see how the work will look on your own wall, that is our separate room-placement service.
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 and protected for transport, without customs inside the European Union. Before dispatch you receive a photograph of the finished work for approval, and our returns policy applies to every order. Every painting on canvas 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.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the original?
We could not read the record of the institution that holds the work, so we do not name the collection here. We would rather write nothing than a detail we cannot check.
Who are the people in it?
Nobody by name. The faces are without features and there are no names on the canvas or in the record; they are nameless figures.
Why is there no year here?
Because we could not confirm one with the institution that holds the work. When its record becomes reachable we will add the year; until then we would rather not state it.
Is this a print?
No. The order is painted by hand in oil colour onto canvas; the brushstrokes can be seen and felt.
Which size should I choose?
The 130 x 91 cm size is the one at which the figures stay readable one by one; for other walls see the guide above.
Can I have a size that is not listed?
Yes, we paint to measure and keep the side ratio of the reference.
How is it delivered?
Stretched on the stretcher bar and protected for transport, in 15 to 45 days, once you confirm the photograph of the finished work.
What does the work say in one sentence?
That the storm is not on the canvas – there is only a gesture everyone makes at once, and one figure making it alone.
Is the original for sale?
No. The work is in a public collection; a hand-painted canvas is the one way to have this scene at home.
How high should I hang it?
The centre at eye level, roughly 145–150 cm from the floor; above a sofa 15–25 cm over the back. Because the format is landscape, leave some empty wall at the sides.
Is it suitable as a gift?
It is an unusual motif and lands well with someone who likes scenes carrying an untold story. At 90 x 60 and 100 x 70 cm it arrives stretched and ready to hang. If you would rather leave the choice to the recipient, a gift voucher is available.
- Subject: a summer night, a cluster of figures before a lit house and one white figure outside the group, all with hands at their ears
- Original: oil technique on canvas; year, collection and accession number are deliberately not stated here
- Ours: a hand-painted oil work, ten sizes from 60 x 40 to 210 x 148 cm, stretched on a stretcher bar, unframed
- Worth knowing: the title promises weather the scene does not show – the sky is quiet and cloudless
