Edvard Munch – The Storm

The Storm

The Storm by Edvard Munch is an oil painting on canvas of 1893, held under accession number 1351.1974 by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The original measures 130.8 x 91.8 cm. The scene shows a summer night in a coastal town, a group of figures in front of a house, and a single white figure standing apart from the rest.

The sky fills the upper third and is a pale grey-lilac, thinly painted and without cloud. Right of centre stands a large pale two-storey house whose windows burn a warm yellow-orange; this is the only strong light in the picture. At the left there is a smaller, darker, brownish building. Between and around them are dark green-black trees and bushes, and one tall tree stands directly in front of the lit house, partly hiding it.

In the left foreground a huddle of about six figures stands close together in white, cream, brown-red and dark clothing. Several of them have their hands raised to their heads, and the faces are barely indicated, without features. In the middle of the foreground one figure stands alone in a long white dress, separated from the group, her hands also at her head, turned toward the viewer. The ground is rocky and painted in dull greens, greys and pinkish browns. A signature sits in the lower right corner.

The scene is set in Aasgaardstrand, the small coastal town on the Oslofjord where Munch spent his summers and where several of his best-known works were made. The gesture of hands to the head is the same one used in The Scream, painted in the same year; both pictures are of 1893 and both use that identical bodily gesture, which is a visible fact rather than a claim about the painter’s intention. The title speaks of a storm, yet there is no lightning and no rain in the sky: the storm is a condition, not a weather event.

Munch laid the colour on very thinly, in places almost scrubbing it into the canvas, so that the weave shows through the whole upper half. The figures are painted without outline drawing, with soft edges that dissolve into the background. The yellow windows are the only passages of denser paint and so stand out physically as well.

Ours is a museum-quality reproduction, hand-painted in oil on canvas, stroke by stroke, and never printed. Because each canvas is made specifically for the order, no two match down to the detail; the small differences in the paint are the mark of a hand rather than a flaw.

The painting is quiet and low in contrast, so it is best hung where the viewer comes close: in a bedroom, a study or beside a reading chair, rather than at the end of a large room. It wants a calm wall that is not stark white; warm greys and sage greens suit it better than pure white, which drains its pale sky. Artificial light should be soft and warm, or the yellow windows lose their effect. Direct sun does not suit it. Among famous paintings on canvas this is one of the subtler ones, and it rewards a close, unhurried look.

Ten sizes are available 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.