Despair, 1893-4
Oil on canvas
92 x 72.5 cm

Related Works

The Scream
Separation

Your Comments

Candelarum wrote on Jun 8, 2001:

The recurrent Oslo bridge in Munch's works is a clear symbol of terror and anxiety when he finds himself wandering, like a senseless automat; the bridge is equal to the means, the brief part which separates before and after, where we find ourselves alone, crying or being observed.

Glynis wrote on Apr 1, 2001:
I miss everything I'll never be
At dawn the lonely man walks home all by himself, regretting, thinking, feeling the weight of his own dirty feet tormenting his own soul and enabled to exorcise his own ghosts. He leaves behind two more strangers, two more lonely and resentful faces. He keeps walking, and what is he thinking of, death? Madness? Sorrow? Lost? Or maybe a simple crossover of all those feelings. Is he trying to forget something, or just walking away from himself, trying not to be himself, trying so very hard not to feel that pain, not to have that permanent hollow. He longs for something, something that would feed the beast within him, something that somehow would make him better - or simply different. Yes a different person in a different place - and without that pain!

David Solorzano wrote on Dec 26, 2000:
Equality
It seems that Munch uses the same bridge on this painting as the ones in The Scream and Anxiety. By doing so he creates the feeling of anxiety as that is what I think his goal would be.

Write a comment

Credits

Picture: Edvard Munch: The Frieze of Life.