Oslo, or Kristiania as the city was called until 1924, is not a frequent motif in Munch’s art. Still, some of the places in and around Kristania that were important to Munch in different periods of his life also surface in his pictures – glimpses of the city as seen by Edvard Munch.

Karl Johan street

The upper part of Oslo's main street Karl Johans gate, from Egertorget square towards the royal palace, ties together several places of significance in Munch's life. It was here Munch rented his first studio, right across from the parliament building. A bit further up the street was Grand Café, a popular hangout for artists in the late 1800s. Blomqvist art gallery, where Munch held many of his exhibitions, was located in Karl Johans gate 35 at the time. The same block also hosted the space where Munch showed his magnum opus The frieze of life in 1904.

 

Munch painted several paintings with this stretch of Karl Johan as the motif. Different weather conditions and seasonal variations yielded different renderings of the street. The Karl Johan paintings are mostly naturalistic, some almost impressionistic, such as Spring Day on Karl Johan Street (included in the main picture above).

 

 

The anxiety-ridden painting Evening on Karl Johan Street is of a rather different nature, however. This is Karl Johan envisioned and painted by the expressionist Edvard Munch.

The Kristiania fjord

Scream is Edvard Munch's most famous motif: An agitated figure in a distorted landscape against a deep red sky. Munch allegedly got the inspiration for this motif during a hike in the hills of Ekeberg. He wrote a text that relates to this episode:

"I was out walking with two friends – the sun began to set – suddenly the sky turned blood red – I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence – there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city – my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety – and I sensed an endless scream passing through nature."

Scream is mainly an abstraction and an inner landscape, a vision of modern anxiety and alienation. The actual view from Ekebergåsen is, however, recognizable, with the bay of Bjørvika and the point where Akershus fortress is located visible in the background.  

Ekely

Munch left Kristiania in 1889, and lived abroad for several years.  He returned to the Kristiania area in 1916 when he purchased the poperty Ekely, located a bit outside the city proper.
 

Due to personal conflicts, Munch had come to view Kristiania as “the enemy’s city”, and he lived quite isolated at Ekely. He remained a highly productive artist, however. Ekely is captured in several paintings that document different aspects of Munch’s later years, up until his death in 1944.