Madonna

A Madonna unlike any other

A woman with long black hair leans back, eyes half closed, her arms behind her head. Instead of a gold halo, she wears a red band around her hair. Edvard Munch called the picture Madonna, but she is far from the traditional Virgin Mary.

Munch painted several versions between 1894 and 1895. The one shown here belongs to the National Museum in Oslo. He also made a famous lithograph of the subject.

Eyes closed, as if in a trance

Her face is pale and tilted, the eyes dark and half closed, the mouth relaxed. She seems caught between ecstasy and exhaustion. Munch connected the image to the moment of conception, uniting love, life and death.

A halo of moving lines

Around her body, the background swirls in curving bands of dark blue, red and brown. They act like an aura or a halo, making the figure glow. Her hair falls in long black strands that merge with these lines.

The painting belongs to Munch’s Frieze of Life, a series about love, anxiety and death that he developed through the 1890s.

Signed in red

Munch signed “E Munch” in red paint at the lower left corner. In the lithograph version he added a border with swimming sperm cells and a small foetus, making the theme of conception explicit.

Part of The Frieze of Life

Madonna belongs to a group of paintings Munch called The Frieze of Life, a series about love, anxiety and death. It includes The Scream, The Kiss, Vampire, Jealousy and Melancholy. Munch exhibited them together, as a cycle of modern life seen through the emotions of the individual.

Madonna represents the moment of love and conception, between life and death.

Ecstasy and death

Munch wrote that the face of the woman showed both the beauty of the earth and the pain of death. Her expression is at once sensual and withdrawn. Her pale body seems to float in a swirl of dark colours. Some versions of the image, especially the lithograph, include a frame of sperm cells and a small foetus in the corner, linking love, birth and death directly.

Many versions

Munch painted several versions of Madonna between 1894 and 1895, now in museums in Oslo, Hamburg and elsewhere. He also made a famous colour lithograph in 1895. Repeating his motifs in paintings and prints was typical of his method. The National Museum version is one of the most important.

Stolen with The Scream

In August 2004, armed robbers stole the Munch Museum’s version of Madonna, together with The Scream, in broad daylight. Both paintings were recovered in 2006, damaged but repairable. The theft made headlines worldwide and showed how famous Munch’s images had become.

Where to see it

This version belongs to the National Museum in Oslo. Our hand-painted oil reproduction follows this composition. For more images of women in art, explore our famous paintings of women, or read about Munch’s The Dance of Life.

Questions about Munch’s Madonna

Is it the Virgin Mary?

Not in the traditional sense. Munch used the title for an image of a woman linked to love, conception and death.

How many versions are there?

Several paintings from 1894 to 1895, plus a lithograph.

Where is this version?

National Museum, Oslo.

Why is there a red halo?

The red band replaces the traditional gold halo of religious paintings.

What is The Frieze of Life?

Munch’s series of paintings on love, anxiety and death, including The Scream.

Was Madonna ever stolen?

The Munch Museum’s version was stolen with The Scream in 2004 and recovered in 2006.

Sources and image credit

• National Museum, Oslo
• Wikimedia Commons: Madonna (1894 to 1895)

Public-domain reproduction of Madonna (1894 to 1895), via Wikimedia Commons. Detail images are crops of the same historical painting; no reconstruction or upscaling.