Advanced Search 
Ingeborg Kaurin (later Ingeborg Onsager)
Edvard Munch (Norwegian, 1863–1944)
about 1912
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
162.9 x 97.5 cm (64 1/8 x 38 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Tompkins Collection—Arthur Gordon Tompkins Fund
Accession Number57.744
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
Munch’s explorations of death and tortured sexuality brought his paintings notoriety around 1900. By comparison, this frontal view of Ingeborg Onsager appears serene. The wife of a fellow Norwegian painter, Onsager modeled regularly for Munch—her round face and wide-set eyes are often recognizable in his prints and paintings. For all its composure, the picture still exhibits the intense color and bold brushwork that made Munch a hero for artists of the next generation. He likely painted it in 1912, the year when a major retrospective in Cologne introduced his work to such young German artists as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, providing inspiration for the Expressionist movement.
InscriptionsLower right: E. Munch / 1[9]
Provenance1913, sold in Stockholm [see note 1]. 1913 until 1916, Carl Steinbart, Berlin. 1916, Galerie Thannhauser, Munich (stock no. 4268) [see note 2]. By 1927 until 1932, Gerd and Otto Nyquist, Oslo. 1932, Wangs Kunsthandel, Oslo. 1932, Thomas Olsen, Oslo [see note 3]; 1957, sold by Olsen to Galleri Kaare Berntsen, Oslo; 1957, sold by Berntsen to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 12, 1957)
NOTES:
[1] Many thanks are due to Gerd Woll for helping to establish the provenance of this painting (e-mail correspondence in MFA curatorial file: January 12, 2005 and December 6, 2007). The picture was included in the exhibition "Edvard Munch," Konstnärshuset, Stockholm, September, 1913. A photograph of the exhibition shows a label marked "sold" hanging on the painting.
[2] See "Katalog der modernen Galerie Heinrich Thannhauser, München" (Munich, 1916), 154. The stock number is taken from a label on the reverse of the stretcher.
[3] Olsen lent the painting to the exhibition "Edvard Munch. Utstilling malerier, akvareller, tegninger, grafik" (Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, November 10 - December 16, 1951), cat. no. 89 (as "Ingeborg").
NOTES:
[1] Many thanks are due to Gerd Woll for helping to establish the provenance of this painting (e-mail correspondence in MFA curatorial file: January 12, 2005 and December 6, 2007). The picture was included in the exhibition "Edvard Munch," Konstnärshuset, Stockholm, September, 1913. A photograph of the exhibition shows a label marked "sold" hanging on the painting.
[2] See "Katalog der modernen Galerie Heinrich Thannhauser, München" (Munich, 1916), 154. The stock number is taken from a label on the reverse of the stretcher.
[3] Olsen lent the painting to the exhibition "Edvard Munch. Utstilling malerier, akvareller, tegninger, grafik" (Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, November 10 - December 16, 1951), cat. no. 89 (as "Ingeborg").