Kiss in the Field

1943

Not on view

Returned to lender

This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.

One year before his death, at the age of eighty, Munch printed this woodcut from a plywood block. The subject of a couple in an intimate embrace, set against a landscape, is his final variation of the motif of the kiss that he explored throughout his life. Here, his approach is virtuosic as well as experimental. He not only accepted that the grain of the wood would show in the print but relied on its flowing and swirling lines to help shape his composition. Munch developed the scene with a bare minimum of artistic intervention. By adding only the outlines of the kissing couple and indicating a low sky over the mountains, he fashioned an image that seems to oscillate between appearance and disappearance, taking shape and being not quite there.

Artwork Details

Overview

Exhibition History

Title: Kiss in the Field
Artist: Edvard Munch (Norwegian, Løten 1863–1944 Ekely)
Date: 1943
Geography: Country of Origin Norway
Medium: Woodcut
Dimensions: 15 13/16 × 19 5/16 in. (40.2 × 49 cm)
Sheet: 24 1/4 × 26 1/8 in. (61.6 × 66.3 cm)
Classification: Prints
Credit Line: Munch Museum, Oslo
Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art