Edvard Munch,
Junto al lecho de muerte (Fiebre), 1893, pastel sobre cartón, 80 x 60 cm. Museo Munch
(Munch Museet), Oslo
"Illness,
madness and death were the black angels that watched over my cradle and have
since followed me through life," Munch wrote in his notes, almost as an
explanation for all the death-related motifs that were to form a large,
significant part of his pictorial world.
Consumption and
tuberculosis were among the frightening illnesses of the age, and a favourite
motif for contemporary visual art. Most families were affected in one way or
other by these disease. Munch experienced the disease twice among those closest
to him, and on one occasion he too was struck down by it: "One Christmas
Eve, when 13 years old, I lie in my bed. The blood trickles from my mouth - the
fever rages in my veins - fear cries out deep within me. Now, now, in just a
moment, you will meet your Maker and be sentenced for eternity." The
horror and the impressions from his mother's death in 1868, when he was five
years old, shook him and the family. Now he himself could feel the fever
rampaging through his body, and his chances of a future were in jeopardy. In
particular, the death of his sister, Sofie, at the age of 15 in 1877 left
ineradicable traces in his soul, but were also to lay the foundation for a
number of his major works.
http://www.edvardmunch.org/by-the-death-bed.jsp
