August Strindberg
1896
Medium
Lithograph on cream wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 60.9 × 46.1 cm (24 × 18 3/16 in.); Sheet: 66.3 × 49.6 cm (26 1/8 × 19 9/16 in.)
Classification
lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
109316
Art Historical Context
Edvard Munch’s 1896 lithograph portrays the Swedish playwright and novelist August Strindberg with the psychological intensity that defines the Norwegian artist’s work. Created during Munch’s productive years in Paris, the print captures Strindberg’s penetrating gaze and tousled hair through bold, sinuous lines that seem to vibrate with inner tension. Munch, a central figure in the Symbolist and emerging Expressionist movements, often used portraiture to explore the emotional undercurrents of his contemporaries. As a lithograph on cream wove paper, the work highlights Munch’s innovative appro...
About the Artist
Edvard Munch · 1863–1944
Edvard Munch (1863-1944) was a Norwegian painter and printmaker whose intensely psychological works made him a pioneer of Expressionism and one of the most influential artists of the modern era. His 1893 masterpiece 'The Scream' has become an iconic symbol of existential anxiety. Munch's art was profoundly shaped by personal tragedy—his mother died when he was five, his beloved sister Sophie at fo...