Evening, Melancholy I
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 cr...
Details
- Palette
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Select a color to find related artworks.
- Medium
- Hand-colored woodcut
- Dimensions
- image: height 0.377 m, width 0.45 m
- Origin
- Norway
- Department
- Prints
- Holding institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Image provider
- cleveland-museum-of-art
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- Gift of Mrs. Clive Runnels in memory of Leonard C. Hanna Jr.
Art Genome Taxonomy
10 tags
Subject Matter
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Landscapes and Waterscapes Both · 98%
A shoreline, broad water area, distant land, sky, and a small boat occupy much of the composition; the catalog identifies the setting as the shore of Åsgårdstrand.
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Human Figure Both · 99%
A single human figure dominates the lower-left foreground, and the catalog identifies the depicted subject as male.
Visual Qualities
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Flatness Visual · 96%
The composition compresses the landscape into broad horizontal bands with limited conventional depth modeling.
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Dark Colors Visual · 98%
Deep blue, black, brown, and muted red tones dominate the image, with relatively limited light areas.
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Rough Both · 96%
The image visibly retains coarse wood grain, irregular block texture, uneven edges, and crudely carved marks; the catalog specifically describes heavily grained blocks and crude carving.
Medium and Techniques
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Woodcut and Linocut Metadata · 99%
The catalog identifies the medium as a hand-colored woodcut.
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Prints Metadata · 99%
The museum classifies the work as a print in the Prints department.
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Work on Paper Both · 96%
The image is a colored impression on a visible paper sheet, and the catalog identifies it as a hand-colored woodcut.
Time Periods
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Late 19th Century Art Metadata · 99%
The catalog dates the work to 1896, placing it in the late nineteenth century.
Geographic Regions
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Scandinavian Art Metadata · 94%
The artist is identified as Norwegian and the place of origin is Norway, supporting its classification within Scandinavian art.
Source & rights
Edvard Munch (Norwegian, 1863–1944). Evening, Melancholy I. Cleveland Museum of Art.