Sickness, Death, Anxiety

"Sickness, insanity and death were the dark angels that stood watch over my cradle."

Edvard Munch?s childhood and youth bore the marks of these dark angels. His mother died when he was five, his sister Sophie when he was fourteen, both of tuberculosis. As he was growing he was constantly sick. Memories of the experiences connected with death were later artistically expressed in the well known motifs "The sick child" and "Death in the sickroom".

The dark angels undoubtedly influenced Munch?s psyche and his art. But his childhood and adolescence were not exceptional for that time. Epidemics and diseases such as diphtheria, scarlet fever, whopping cough and measles wrought havoc in the capital. There were also no effective medicines or treatments for such ailments as bronchitis, pneumonia and tuberculosis. Mortality was very high in Christiania compared to the rest of the country. This was particularly true of the working-class districts in eastern Christiania, where Edvard grew up.