Around sixty works by Edvard Munch bequeathed to Harvard

13/2/25 - Acquisitions - Cambridge (Massachusetts), Harvard Art Museums, Busch-Reisinger Museum et Fogg Museum - The Harvard Art Museums have just announced that sixty-four new works by Edvard Munch have joined their collections thanks to the bequest of Philip A. and Lynn G. Straus, who were among their most loyal and generous donors. The collection consists of two paintings, Two Human Beings (The Lonely Ones) (ill. 1) and Train Smoke (ill. 2), and sixty-two prints, high-quality proofs, many of which were exhibited during the artist’s lifetime. We reproduce only a selection here, but the whole collection can be consulted online in the museum collection database. The paintings, which have been restored, have been transferred to the Busch-Reisinger Museum, one of the three museums that make up the Harvard Art Museums, while the collection of engravings has been transferred to the Fogg Museum. They have been added to an already sizeable collection of works by the artist, which is largely indebted to the Straus couple, to their repeated donations and to the numerous purchases they supported. Now boasting 142 works - eight paintings and 134 prints - the Harvard Munch collection is one of the most important dedicated to the Norwegian artist in the United States.

1. Edvard Munch (1863-1944)
Two Human Beings (The Lonely Ones), 1906-1908
Oil on canvas - 81.3 × 111.5 cm
Cambridge, Harvard Art Museums
Photo: Cambridge, Harvard Art Museums

See the image in its page

2. Edvard Munch (1863-1944)
Train Smoke, 1910
Oil on canvas - 91.7 × 116.5 cm
Cambridge, Harvard Art Museums
Photo: Cambridge, Harvard Art Museums

See the image in its page

Part of the bequest will soon be presented to the public in the exhibition Edvard Munch: Technically Speaking that the Harvard Art Museums will inaugurate on 7 March. Alongside earlier additions and loans from the Munchmuseet in Oslo, it will comprise a selection of around seventy works that will…