Dr. Linde's Sons

In the spring of 1903 Munch spent about two weeks in the north German port of Lübeck, staying with Dr. Max Linde, an eye surgeon who had become his most important early collector in Germany. The task was to paint Linde's four young sons, a birthday present for their mother. Munch lined the boys up against a pale wall, each caught mid-gesture, one hand in a pocket, another turned slightly away, so the group looks less like a posed portrait than a moment interrupted. Linde bought Munch's work when few Germans would, and this warm domestic picture came out of that friendship. It still hangs in Lübeck, in the house-museum known as the Behnhaus.