Evening, Melancholy I (1896): Art, History and Details

Evening, Melancholy I (1896) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Edvard Munch (Norwegian, 1863–1944).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Evening, Melancholy I depicts the jilted, tormented art critic Jappe Nilssen, Munch's friend, on the shore of Åsgårdstrand, a fishing village south of Oslo. Munch chose heavily grained blocks of wood, allowing the pattern of the board to add texture to the scene, and he exploited the handmade aspect of the technique by carving blocks crudely. He also experimented so that each impression is unique, using black ink on the woodblock and watercolor and gouache to color the sheet extensively. An example of how method can reinforce meaning, the simplified shapes, flattened space, and dark hues create a visual correspondence to the figure's deep depression.

Object facts

• Title: Evening, Melancholy I
• Date: 1896
• Creator attribution: Edvard Munch (Norwegian, 1863–1944)
• Culture: Norway
• Type: Print
• Technique: Hand-colored woodcut
• Dimensions: Image: 37.7 x 45 cm (14 13/16 x 17 11/16 in.)
• Collection: PR - Woodcut
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1959.82

A detail from the museum

This print is one of only two known impressions printed from the first state of the block before it was cut into two sections.

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. Clive Runnels in memory of Leonard C. Hanna Jr.

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Recent Acquisitions Press Release,” July 20, 1959, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Recent Acquisitions Press Release,” July 24, 1959, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.