Edvard Munch was a compulsive portraitist, and an odd one

Edvard Munch ( 1863-1944 ) was a compulsive portraitist, and an odd one.

He painted people for himself and painted them how he wanted to.

Munch kept most of these portraits with him as a phalanx of lifeguards” to protect him and himself.

Edvard Munch painted Henrik Ibsen , one of his heroes, and Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche , the sister of another.

The impression given by his most famous subject paintings is of a man who knew all too well the bleak solitude of the human condition.