The Researchers

Munch came to this after the worst stretch of his life. In 1908 he collapsed and spent months in a Copenhagen clinic, and when he came out he wanted to paint health instead of dread. The University of Oslo had announced a competition to decorate its new assembly hall, and he worked at it for years, making hundreds of studies. This large version from around 1911 shows a monumental woman nursing a child beneath a tree while other children study the plants and stones along the shore. He called the theme researchers because that is what the children are doing, learning the world by handling it. The final hall received a calmer variant he named Alma Mater. During the war this canvas was cut from its frame in a hurry and hidden in a mine at Kongsberg.