Edvard Munch was born in 1863 in Løten, Norway. He broke off his engineering studies and first experimented with painting in 1880, and then went on to study at various private art schools. He first visited Paris in 1885; other visits followed. There he studied Impressionism, mainly the works of Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh. In 1886 Munch exhibited at the Autumn Salon in Oslo, and three years later he had his first solo show at the Students’ Union. In 1892 his exhibition at the Verein Berliner Künstler (the Union of Berlin Artists) caused a scandal and was closed after a week. Munch turned more and more to the depiction of psychic states, and accordingly was an important source of inspiration for Expressionism. In 1908 Munch suffered a nervous breakdown. He died in 1944 in Ekely, near Oslo.
