Munchs Haus in Åsgårdstrand

Munch bought this small cottage in Asgardstrand in 1898, after a decade of summers in rented rooms in the village. He was in his mid-thirties and owned almost nothing else. The following year he put up a studio on the plot and painted the house from the garden, working on cardboard rather than canvas, which is what he often reached for outdoors. 1899 was otherwise a restless year for him. He was in Italy in the spring and spent the late autumn resting at a sanatorium up in the Gudbrandsdalen valley. The cottage he held on to. Asgardstrand council bought it from his estate in 1944, the year he died, and opened it to visitors in 1947, so the building in the picture is still there to stand in front of.