Munch’s art from that period reveal him as an extraordinary colourist, armed with a light palette and a desire to celebrate life, thus confirming that he had made a full recovery. As Arne Eggum writes: ‘Until 1902, Munch’s influence on his time was limited. After that, his use of colour, which was something entirely new at the turn of the century, had a decisive influence.’ Some critics even see Munch as one of the chief influences on German expressionism, as well as an often overlooked, contemporary precursor of fauvism. Munch’s neighbour, the Norwegian philanthropist Thomas Olsen (1897–1969), started to collect his paintings in the late 1920s.
By purchasing canvases from German museums and shipping them to Norway, he played a key role in saving Munch’s works from the Nazis, who classified them as ‘degenerate’. During the Second World War, the Olsen Collection, which owned Ingeborg by the Fjord, was hidden from the German occupying forces in the family farm in Sandbu.
For further information, please contact Artvera’s Gallery at
or +41 22 311 05 53