Half-Length Portrait of a Man (Brustbild eines bartlosen Mannes)

1913

Edvard Munch

Associated Names
Edvard Munch

Artist, Norwegian, 1863 - 1944

The image is a portrait of a person's upper body, focusing on their head and shoulders. The person is depicted in a three-quarter view, with their face turned slightly to the right. Their facial features are accentuated with bold outlines and hatching, highlighting deep-set eyes and a prominent forehead. The hair is short and tightly situated around the head. They are wearing a jacket over what appears to be a shirt or top, with minimal detail on the clothing. The background is simple, consisting of hatching marks for texture. The artwork is a black ink drawing on light-colored paper, with a visible signature in the bottom right corner.
This object’s media is not available for download. Contact us about image usage.
Not on view See artworks now on view

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    etching

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Accession Number

    1951.10.355

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Woll 2001, no. 431, State only

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Claude Schaefer [1913-2010], Montevideo, Uruguay; sold 1950 to Lessing J. Rosenwald; [1] gift 1950/1951 to the National Gallery of Art.
[1] In Recollections of a Collector, 1976, p. 56-57, Rosenwald described being approached by a young man in South America who offered to sell his father’s collection of prints that he had brought with him from Germany. Rosenwald gives the year as 1951, but his appointment books confirm that it was actually 1950 - he left for Buenos Aires on 9 February 1950 and returned on 20 March 1950 (Library of Congress, Rosenwald Papers, Box 75). Rosenwald writes that he bought the entire collection of some 1100 prints and drawings, but as they had already been scheduled to be sent to Europe they came to the United States via Antwerp, arriving in the US in late April 1950. Rosenwald decided to keep about a quarter of the collection, destined for the National Gallery of Art, and donate the remainder to other institutions. The inventory log of Alverthorpe indicates that just over 300 works were accessioned there in May of 1950, inventory numbers 50.260-50.530, acquired from Claude Schaefer (Gallery Archives, National Gallery of Art, RG 45A1, Rosenwald Papers, Box 41).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1966

  • Edvard Munch, Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, PA, 1966.

Bibliography

1907

  • Schiefler, Gustav. Verzeichnis des graphischen Werks Edvard Munchs bis 1906. vol. 1. Berlin, 1907 (reprinted 1974); and Schiefler, Gustav. Edvard Munch. Das graphische Werk 1906-1926. vol. 2. Berlin, 1927. (reprinted 1974).

2001

  • Woll, Gerd. Edvard Munch: The Complete Graphic Works. New York, 2001.

Markings

Verso, stamped in black ink: COMISION NACIONAL DE MUSEOS / Y MONUMENTOS HISTORICOS / JOSE LUIS BUSANICHE / SECRETARIO GENERALE

Wikidata ID

Q65222817

You may be interested in

Loading Results