Mar 05, 2015 - Sale 2375

Sale 2375 - Lot 433

Price Realized: $ 20,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 30,000 - $ 50,000
EDVARD MUNCH
Portrait of a Young Girl.

Pencil on cream wove paper, circa 1882. 270x223 mm; 10 5/8x8 3/4 inches. Signed in pencil, lower right recto. Ex-collection the artist; Mrs. John Wyss, Hartford; private collection, West Hartford.

According to the Munch Museum, Oslo, while the drawing was executed around 1882, the signature was likely added later by the artist when it left his personal collection.

Munch (1863-1944) started training as an architect in 1879 at Kristiania technical college. The following year he decided to pursue painting and, in 1882, rented a studio in Kristiania with six other young artists. His first public exhibition (one painting and two drawings at the Kristiania Industry and Art Exhibition) was in 1883 and two years later he began work on several of his key works, including The Day After, Puberty and The Sick Child.

This drawing will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Munch's drawings currently in preparation by the Munch Museum, Oslo.