Munch’s visions from within the eye

Abstract

The Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863–1944) has become synonymous with The Scream , one of the most famous and haunting paintings of expressionist art. Munch owed much of his success to the German ophthalmologist Dr Max Linde, who came from a family of artists and who also befriended the sculptor Auguste Rodin and Max Liebermann, the German impressionist. Linde had a great interest in art and in 1896 published an article on the advantages of myopia in painters in the art magazine Das Atelier .1 His wife’s fortune meant that he was in a position to indulge his passion and ultimately accumulated one of Europe’s most important private collections of contemporary art. When Munch was still a novice in 1902, Linde was one of the first to recognise his extraordinary talent. As soon as the two had met, Linde published a pamphlet with the title Edvard Munch und die Kunst der Zukunft (‘Edvard Munch and the Art of the Future’). According to Linde, French Impressionism had run its course and it was time for art to delve deeper to reflect man’s inner conflict in modern times. He would describe Munch as ‘a fine interpreter of the human soul, a Hamlet figure who likes to brood and ponder.’1 There is little documentation regarding Munch’s general health, but we know that he abused alcohol and was …