Mar 14, 2024 - Sale 2662

Sale 2662 - Lot 272

Price Realized: $ 15,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 15,000 - $ 20,000
EDVARD MUNCH
Hode ved hode (Head by Head).

Drypoint printed in dark brownish black, 1905. 220x325 mm; 8¾x13 inches, full margins. Signed in pencil, lower right, and signed by the printer, Felsing, in pencil lower left. A brilliant, richly-inked impression of this extremely scarce print with strong burr.

The profile side-by-side heads of a man and woman, or the head of a man enveloped by the hair of an adjacent woman's head, are recurring themes in Munch's (1863-1944) work. He repeated the subject of Hode ved hode (Head by Head) in a color woodcut, also from 1905, and two oil paintings from circa 1905. These subjects show the extreme closeness, yet the imbalance and disconnectedness in the expressions of the two heads, indicating much about the complex relationship between human beings and depicting the difficulty in achieving mutual trust, security and affinity. Like much of Munch's work, these works illuminate the loneliness, the fragility and the sorrow within human existence. Woll 255.