Edvard Munch – Pioneer of European Modernism
Alongside Vincent van Gogh and Henri Matisse, Edvard Munch is considered a pioneer of European Modernism. If it had not been for their bold, innovative spirit, Expressionism, and, above all, the art of the “Brücke” and the “Blaue Reiter” would never have been possible. They were the driving forces behind new and radical ideas at the end of the 19th century when the classical salons and history painting still dominated the future European art capitals of Berlin and Paris. The force of the paintings by the young Norwegian artist Munch struck Berlin like a meteorite in 1892. After only a few days, his exhibition, organized at the invitation of the Verein Berliner Künstler (Berlin Artists' Association) through the efforts of Anton von Werner, director of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, was closed amid protests and altercations among the members of the association. However, the scandal surrounding Munch's new painting style, which was perceived as raw and unfinished, had shaken the conservative Berlin art world once and for all. Munch triggered a big bang in Berlin that paved the way for the formation of the Berlin Secession under Max Liebermann a few years later, followed by the emergence of Expressionism shortly after. Munch's nonconformity and incredibly emotional style abandoned academic traditions and became one of the most important forces in the European avant-garde.

Life, love, fear, and death – the master of the Nordic soulscape
It is man's emotional sensation of nature that Munch described as his artistic awakening following his impressionist beginnings, a sensation that inspired his four iconic versions of “The Scream”: “I was walking down a road with two friends – the sun was setting – when the sky suddenly turned blood red […] there were tongue-like flashes of blood and fire over the blue-black fjord and the city – […] and I stood there trembling with fear – and I felt that a scream passing through nature.” Munch was the first to capture existential fear on canvas through the distorted but symbiotic connection between nature and man. Munch, whose childhood was marked by the early deaths of his mother and his beloved sister Sophie, became the painter of existential emotions between life, love, fear, and death. These are Munch's abstract yet universally relevant themes, drawn from a life marked by unhappy love affairs and expressed in his famous series of paintings entitled “The Frieze of Life,” which he continued to develop throughout his life. One of the most famous paintings in this group is “The Dance of Life” (1899/1900, Norwegian National Gallery, Oslo), depicting figures dancing in a Norwegian fjord landscape, symbolizing life, love, and death, against a melancholic sun setting slowly into the sea. However, Munch, who suffered from mental and physical illness throughout his life and yet miraculously survived the devastating Spanish flu in 1918, also repeatedly painted vast and deserted soulscapes that strike us as intimate and captivating reflections of the artist's highly sensitive nature.

Vast, dramatic, weathered, and powerful—the Red House as a symbol of life
Following extensive travels abroad and hospital stays necessitated by his unstable mental health, Munch acquired the Ekely Estate near Oslo in 1916, which would become his sanctuary and creative center. In addition to the main house and studio, where the artist lived on his own, the extensive property with views of Oslo, meadows, orchards, and the vastness of the fjord also included the red house, which Munch captured in our atmospheric painting in vibrant colors and with bold strokes on a large canvas. In “The Red House,” the familiar landscape of the lonely artist is elevated to a stirring emotional landscape, like an entry in a painted diary. The mood captured here is nothing short of magical, with a sense of infinite vastness and crystalline light characteristic of the Nordic landscape. The delicate branches of the gnarled tree on the right are still bare, facing a small tree on the left that is just beginning to grow. The sky is stormy and turbulent, and the water is calm yet ready to surge into the sea through a riverbed shaped over decades and dissolve into an intoxicating infinity. The reflection of our mortality, central and significant to Munch's seminal work, resonates here, as does the awareness of the vulnerability and transience of our existence in the face of nature's eternal spectacle. A thought inherent in the Romantic paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, for example, in “Monk by the Sea” (1808/10) or “Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog” (1818), in which he confronts his figures with a sublime nature. Unlike Friedrich, however, Munch used nature not only as a symbol of the infinitely sublime but as a reflection of his state of mind, as an ecstatic attempt to express his feelings through art. As a result, “The Red House,” with its rugged, stormy landscape and the massive, still bare but soon-to-be vigorously sprouting tree, is the representation of a mature artistic personality shaped by life, but, precisely because of this, sensitive, powerful, and eager for life. In retrospect, Munch once put it quite aptly: “I would not want to miss suffering, for how much do I owe to suffering in my art?” and “My breakthrough came very late [...] . But during this time [...] I felt that I had enough strength to create something new [...]” (Edvard Munch 1939, quoted from: Ranga Stang, Edvard Munch, Königstein i. T. 1979, p. 258).

“The Red House” – highly esteemed by Munch, curators, and collectors alike
As with all other motifs particularly dear to Munch, the artist also created two smaller versions of the Red House. Throughout his life, Munch reportedly found it difficult to part with paintings that mattered to him, which explains why he often created another version of the same motif after selling it. Munch selected “The Red House” for the Munch exhibition initiated by Gustav Hartlaub at Kunsthalle Mannheim the same year it was created. Although Hartlaub repeatedly expressed serious intentions to purchase it, the artist ultimately decided to send the painting from Mannheim to Berlin for the major Munch retrospective at the Nationalgalerie. The large-format landscape was also included in the exhibition catalog, as in Mannheim. With the exhibition initiated by Ludwig Justi, Munch found himself at the height of his artistic recognition, well over two decades after his legendary scandal exhibition in Berlin.Immediately after the retrospective in Berlin, the Dresden Galerie Arnold sold “The Red House” to the southern German industrialist Max Glaeser, who had an important collection of Expressionist art. The exceptionally high-quality painting was widely exhibited and sold to Sigval Bergesen's d. y. important Munch collection in Oslo through Galerie Wolfgang Ketterer in 1964. The collection, including a version of Munch's world-famous erotic painting “Madonna” (1894), has been home to the painting ever since. Munch did not live to see the return of his important painting “The Red House.” He died lonely at his estate in Ekely near Oslo in 1944 and bequeathed his entire artistic estate to the Norwegian state, which has been presenting his work to the public at the Munch Museum in Oslo since 1963. [JS]

The Provenance

"Munch's two works, 'The Red House' and 'Kneeling Female Nude' (...) point to uncharted waters of artistic creation, which this great Nordic recluse helped to explore."

Der Sammler 1930, issue 2, p. 26.



“The Glaeser Collection boasts two of Munch's finest works, 'Landscape with Red House' and 'Kneeling Girl,' which are the envy of many a museum. The artist had difficulty parting with his works, as he was used to them being part of his life. Getting to know him in person was a great personal experience for the collector, making the purchase possible. The themes of the paintings are a simple, vast Nordic landscape and a naked woman. Not mysterious – terrible events – as Munch loved to depict in his early works – but nature in its simplest form. And yet, in their superhuman, heroic grandeur, similar to a Beethoven symphony or the sight of rugged, weather-beaten mountains, they make us tremble with awe and excitement.”
Hand und Maschine, 1929, issue 1, pp. 118, 120.



In the Max Glaeser Collection in Eselsfürth

The collection of the commercial councilor Dr. Max Glaeser (1871–1931) was one of the most significant private art collections in the Weimar Republic. The successful enamel manufacturer from Eselsfürth near Kaiserslautern began compiling his impressive collection in 1907, initially focusing on German art of the 19th and early 20th centuries. However, around 1926, modern art made its entrance. With his sure taste, Glaeser began to seek out the best works of his contemporaries.

In this context, he valued personal contact with the artists. Glaeser used a business trip to Copenhagen in 1927 to visit Edvard Munch, as he wanted to add some of his works to his collection. However, he did not discover “The Red House” in the artist's studio in Oslo but on his way back home – in the window of Galerie Ernst Arnold in Dresden. The artist had given the painting to the gallery on loan for an exhibition.
Glaeser was so captivated by the “Red House” that he was even willing to give up everything else he had previously selected. His efforts paid off: “The ‘Red House’ was sold to Mr. Glaeser,” gallery owner Gutbier reported to Munch on October 27, 1927 (Munch Museum Oslo, letter MM 3734). This means the collector came out on top against a notable competitor: the Kunsthalle Mannheim.

The presentation of the work in the Glaeser Collection was no less impressive than in a museum. Historical photographs provide insight into the villa built in 1927/28. “The Red House” was on display right next to the large “Kneeling Female Nude” (illustrated) above a white grand piano, directly in the view of anyone entering the salon from the vestibule.



From Eselfürth to Dresden

When Max Glaeser died of a heart condition in May 1931, the “Red House” was part of his estate. The entire collection was bequeathed to the Kaiserslautern museum, with a right of first refusal at the favorable price of 100,000 Reichsmarks. However, by 1931, National Socialism had already gained political dominance in the region, and the purchase of the avant-garde collection was prevented.

His widow, Anna Glaeser, attempted to sell the paintings, a complex undertaking given the economic situation at the time. The spring exhibition dedicated to Munch and Gauguin at the Kunsthaus Zurich in 1932 offered the painting for a remarkable price of 43,000 Swiss francs. However, it remained in the family's possession for the time being.

In December 1935, Anna Glaeser finally offered several works of art to Galerie Heinemann in Munich, including both Munch paintings. However, a sale did not come about. Soon afterward, the Dresden art dealer Rudolf Probst (Galerie Neue Kunst Fides) learned of the Glaeser estate. He had no direct contact with the family and, therefore, turned to Deutsche Bank in Kaiserslautern in November 1936. The bank forwarded his request to former Major Arthur Romanic, Max Glaeser's son-in-law (Probst estate, Avantgarde Archive, Dresden, A3377-V019-01).

Although the negotiations were successful, the subsequent correspondence between Romanic and Probst has not been preserved. When Galerie Heinemann inquired about the Munch works again in January 1937, they were informed that both paintings had been sold. Like Lovis Corinth's “Chrysanthemen und Kalla” (Chrysanthemums and Callas), they found their way to Galerie Neue Kunst Fides.


From the "Schenck Collection" back to Norway

Probst also appears to have found a solvent buyer for the “Red House”: two works from the Glaeser Collection can be traced to the collection of the timber merchant Friedrich Karl Schenck (1889–1963) from Sattelmühle, a regular buyer from Probst. Munch's “Red House” is listed with the highest price in a collection estimate from 1942, alongside works by Franz Marc, Gustave Courbet, and Auguste Renoir (Probst estate, Avantgarde Archive, Dresden, no. A5139-V024-01).

Schenck's extensive and valuable collection, which he expanded well into the 1950s, was put up for sale at Galerie Wolfgang Ketterer in 1963/64. The “Red House” was offered for the impressive price of DM 450,000. The work caused quite a stir, with the Handelsblatt newspaper reporting that inquiries from all over the world flooded into Stuttgart.

Johann H. Langaard, director of the Munch Museum in Oslo, also took notice: “I have always considered it an excellent example of Munch's later landscape art and would like to see it return to Norway,” he wrote to Wolfgang Ketterer on February 10, 1964. Langaard's plan worked: just a few weeks later, he arranged for the purchase by Norwegian shipowner Sigval Bergesen Jr. (1893–1980), a renowned Munch expert and collector. The work remained in the Bergesen family for over 60 years and is now back on the market—with a remarkable history spanning from the artist's studio to the present day. [AT]