Two beings (The lonely ones)

Munch’s artistically formative years took place in Paris in the late 1880s and Berlin in the 1890s. In Germany he began to make a name for himself and became involved with the Jugendstil publication Pan, which actively promoted the graphic arts. In 1895 the magazine’s co-founder, Julius Meier-Graefe, published a portfolio containing eight drypoints and etchings by Munch. The set included Two human beings (The lonely ones) (opposite, below). The mood of existential loneliness is rendered all the more poignant by the presence of a man and woman staring together out to sea at the rocky beach at Åsgårdstrand, yet physically and psychically separated from each other.