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At first glance, it is a striking portrait by Edvard Munch, painted in 1892, a year before the Norwegian master was to create his most famous masterpiece, The Scream.
But peer closely at the man’s sleeve along the bottom edge and two embracing, ethereal figures in a mysterious moonlit landscape are revealed.
The intriguing painting within a painting by one of the most significant artists of the 20th century, a pioneer of expressionism, is to be seen for the first time in Britain after its rediscovery. It will be unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in March as part of a large exhibition, Edvard Munch Portraits.
The sitter for the painting was Munch’s friend Thor Lütken, a lawyer who gave him professional help and spent summer months with him on the Oslo fjord.
One of Lütken’s daughters also appears in Munch’s painting The Girls on the Bridge (1901).
The portrait of Lütken, an oil on canvas, was listed as “location unknown” in the definitive catalogue of Munch’s paintings.
It had in fact been with the lawyer’s descendants, who had moved to Spain, loaning it to the National Museum of Arts of Catalonia in Barcelona before selling it in 2022, so that several members of the family could benefit from it.
It was sold by a Barcelona art dealer, Artur Ramon, who said that Munch was believed to have painted it for his friend in lieu of payment for his legal services.
Lütken was among several friends whom Munch described as his “lifeguards” or “guardians” and who helped the artist in difficult times.
Munch would no doubt have been astonished to learn that one of his versions of The Scream sold for a record $119.9m in 2012.
Ramon described the hidden landscape in the Lütken portrait as “a mystery left by Munch only for the sharpened minds”, adding: “What did Lütken, the lawyer, think of this? The answer is a secret between portrayer and sitter.”
The exhibition’s curator, Alison Smith, said the symbolism of the hidden landscape was open to interpretation: “The figures reprise the lovers in Munch’s Kiss by the Window and those in the distance of Melancholy, while also anticipating Death and Life of 1894 …
“Painted in shades of inky blue reminiscent of his other symbolist works, the scene alludes to death as well as romance, evoking feelings on the outer edges of consciousness.
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“The portrait was intended as a gift to the sitter, which helps explain the encoded message and why Munch felt free to experiment with the subject.”
She added: “You’ll sometimes walk past a painting and just think that’s just a portrait. But this one lures you in. It’s got an intriguing mystery.”
Sue Prideaux, a Munch biographer, said: “It’s a top-quality portrait from Munch’s most important period – the same year as Vampire and Madonna and just a year before The Scream. The ghostly landscape with the figure in white bears echoes of many paintings, particularly Mermaid and Young Girl on a Jetty. We’ll be trying to unravel the mysteries of this painting for years to come.”
The NPG’s Munch exhibition will be the first in the UK to focus exclusively on his portraits. Most of the artworks will not be known to a British audience.
Early family portraits include a poignant one of Munch’s sister Laura on a family holiday, just a year before she was hospitalised with schizophrenia – one of many tragic incidents in his life that inspired his work.
Smith said the exhibition would show a different side to the painter: “Contrary to the typical portrayal of Munch as an artist isolated from the mainstream, he will be presented as a social being.”
She added that the “lifeguards” were so important to him that he refused to be parted from their portraits, “which acted as substitutes for the men when they were not around”.
