Edvard Munch,
Norwegian 1863-1944,
The Woman with Long Hair, the Maiden with the Heart;
etching...

Edvard Munch,
Norwegian 1863-1944,

The Woman with Long Hair, the Maiden with the Heart;

etching on wove,
signed in pencil, from an unnumbered edition 
sheet: 42 x 60 cm,
(framed)

Provenance: UK Private Collection | Ketterer Kunst auctions, Germany, 2008 | Galerie Kahnweiller, Paris

Literature: Woll 54/55, Schiefler 47/48 

Note: Early impressions, printed by Lemercier, feature both images printed side by side. The plate was later split in two and the images were printed separately by Felsing. It is unknown if the two images are meant to represent the same woman or two separate women, but they are both related to the story of the suffering of love. The Woman with Long Hair is understood to be a precursor to a more well-known print of his titled The Sin, which features a similar woman with a blank stare, long tresses of hair and exposed breasts. To the right sits the Maiden with the Heart, where a young woman sits with arms outstretched, holding a bleeding heart. In some singular instances of Maiden with the Heart, the blood has been coloured red, though most remain monochrome. Prints from Edvard Munch are rare, as most of his canvas works are in museums, and more than half of his known paintings contained within the Munch Museum collection. Singular versions of both the Woman with the Long Hair and the Maiden with the Heart can be seen in museums around the world, including the United States National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. In particular, this instance of the two plates printed on the same page, before they were separated, makes it an exceptional example of art produced by Munch.