3 w. ago
Edvard Munch Portraits review – in search of the master of jealousy, neurosis and despair
National Portrait Gallery, LondonStrindberg and his psychic double and the fierce sister of Nietzsche are among the stars in this show devoted to the Norwegian painter’s tremendous portraits – yet the omissions are glaringIn the autumn of 1908, Edvard Munch admitted himself to Dr Daniel Jacobson’s private clinic in Copenhagen to be treated for acute alcohol-induced psychosis. Over the next eight months, Jacobson helped him give up nicotine as well as drink. Of the stream of images Munch painted in the clinic – never paralysed by any setback – one is a towering portrait of the doctor that appears about halfway through this new show.Jacobson stands tall, feet widely planted, hands on hips in his three-piece suit. His face is all sharp-eyed intelligence, equal to any crisis. The sitter thought the picture loopy, perhaps because of all the pulsating energy that radiates around him in swift strokes to rival his vigour. But a photograph of the two men, the painting between them, shows it ...
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