(Loeiten 1863–1944 Oslo) Two Human Beings. The Lonely Ones, 1899, signed E Munch, woodcut, black and light blue on fine light grey paper, image size 39.4 x 55.5 cm, sheet size 41 x 57.5 cm, framed, (PS)

This copy is the only known print made by the artist himself, “Schiefler records only one impression, hand printed by the artist in black and light blue on light grey paper.”
(Woll, p. 163)

Literature: Gerd Woll, Edvard Munch, The complete graphic works, 2001, no.157 a) I (Schiefler 133)

The Lonely Ones is one of Munch’s most important Symbolist works. It was based on a painting, now lost, dated 1891. The artist hauntingly conveys solitude and oppressive emptiness in this symbolic landscape. In the woodcut version of 1899, the man and woman stand on the beach, both gazing at the sea. The woman’s closed, almost dismissive posture contrasts with the man’s movements. He takes a slightly hesitant, still indecisive step towards the woman, and then pauses. His movement forwards is braked by the stone lying between the figures, making evident their individual isolation. Munch succeeds in this woodcut in shifting our gaze from the external world to the interior life of the figures by means of his evocative use of line and the limited palette.