An Analysis of 'The Green Room' Series, painted by Edvard Munch 1906-1908

The Green Room

'The Green Room' is the name Munch gave to a series of eight or so works painted in the later part of 1906 and in 1907. They are: 'Weeping Girl,' 'Zum Sussen Madel,' 'Desire,' 'Hatred,' 'Jealousy,' 'Consolation,' 'Cupid and Psyche' and 'The Murderess' motifs. The series is a cheerless combination of the Love, Anxiety and Death motifs in 'The Frieze of Life;' there is none of the rejoicing of love found in 'Eye in Eye' or 'The Dance of Life' nor is there the acceptance that the pain of love is part of the cycle of nature, as presented in 'Jealousy' or 'Woman in Three Stages.' Rather each painting has a bleak bitter view of love, presenting it in combination with anxiety and death, as a heartless, savage and brutal commodity. The series can be seen as the artistic result of Munch's personal decline. Since the Berlin Secession in 1902 Munch's abuse of alcohol had risen considerably, which had severely affected his nerves. Increasingly critics had been praising his work and he was being invited to exhibit all over Europe, often alongside Cézanne and Matisse and other great masters of the time. With this artistic success came celebrity, eyes were always on Munch. When, in 1904, he attacked author Andreas Haukland in a restaurant as revenge for a drunken confrontation the night before it was widely reported throughout Scandinavia and in France and Germany. Similarly when the friendship with his 'pupil' Ludwig Karsten came to an abrupt end as a result of Munch making indecent advances to a woman, actions again fuelled by alcohol, it made the European press. Critics and the public had finally begun to respond positively to his work, and this response was undoubtedly helped by scandalous press reports, but the attention cannot have helped Munch's frail wellbeing. Despite his work's growing popularity Munch's financial state was dire. He made economically naïve decisions, signing contracts with art dealers that gave out a lot of money initially, but relied on the artist selling certain paintings in small amounts of time. When this repeatedly did not happen Munch found himself in debt to art dealers across Europe. Together with all the strains Munch placed on himself physically and mentally through excessive use of alcohol and poor handling of his finances, his relationship with Tulla Laursen climaxed in a shooting incident, the exact details of which are unknown, the result of which was an injury to Munch's hand and the pair never laying eyes on each other again.

As the name would suggest, most of the paintings in the series are set in a green room, the exceptions being 'Weeping Girl' and perhaps 'Cupid and Psyche.' Compositionally 'Zum Sussen Madel,' 'Desire,' 'Hatred' and 'Jealousy' are all extremely similar, the two former paintings in particular. They feature the green room, the back wall of which is square on to the canvas. On the right hand side of the back wall is a door, which is shut in 'Desire' and 'Hatred' and filled by a curious male carrying a tray and a couple in deep embrace, presumably Tulla Laursen and her new partner, in 'Zum Sussen Madel' and 'Jealousy' respectively. In the room there is a sofa and in all but 'Hatred' a table. In the paintings in which it is included, the round is used to produce an aggressive, space creating effect. In 'Desire' it draws the couple on the sofa closer together and exaggerates the distance between woman and the presumably empty bottle of wine, thus drawing attention to her gaze that is focused on the bottle, rather than the male, in turn illustrating the opposing emotions of the two figures. The aspect that chiefly differentiates the works is the male figures. All give their respective works different disturbing sexual undertones. The expression of he in 'Zum Sussen Madel' is mischievous, devious and expectant; he in 'Desire' shows a yearning, lustful and, when combined with the female figure, uncontrollable passion (This is emphasized by Munch filling the greater portion of the bottom right corner of the canvas with deep tones of purple and red); he in 'Jealousy' a wide eyed, exasperated celibacy. All men have strong reds in their faces, indicating the influence of alcohol. The ceiling (which does not feature in 'Desire') is purple, the sofa is a deeper purple with occasional flecks of red, and the table red with occasional flecks of purple. The similar tonnages of these three aspects of the composition serve to draw the room together, generating a claustrophobic, inescapable atmosphere that can be traced back to the windowless interior setting of 'The Chamber of Death.' Colour tone and painting technique are used to great effect in Desire particularly. The male figure's coat is painted in the same way, using the same colours as the sofa behind him. The coat appears as an extension of the sofa, merging from it to form the male's body: The male is presented as a physical part of the room, indicating his way of life is comparable to that of the Brothel. The female figure's clothing merges in colour and painting technique the further from the male figure it is, indicating she wants to escape the male's way of life, ultimately the male himself. The walls are predominantly green, but painted in different patterns in all four motifs. Often Munch's brushwork leaves gaps in the paint so the naked canvas can be seen. The contrasts between red and green together with the loose brushwork serve to create an atmosphere of nervous restlessness in all four motifs.

'The Death of Marat' (or 'The Murderess' as they were also known) motifs are perhaps the most personal works in the series, and the most scathing with reference to Tulla Laursen. 'The Murderess,' painted in 1906, features a woman with Tulla's characteristics staring blankly out of the canvas. In front of her is a table, on the top of which sits a bowl of fruit, apparently what Tulla was serving before the shooting incident, and a hat, in the style of those Tulla was known for wearing. Her figure is surrounded by a dark doorway, in front of which is a bed with a male figure lying down, fully clothed, the stain of blood on his shirt. The colours, for the most part are reds and oranges, although the male is swathed in black. The paintwork is Impressionist in technique: modest flicks of paint serve to create detail. 'The Death of Marat I' is a simplified development of 'The Murderess.' Certain details have been lost: the doorway, the detail of the quilt and the clothes of the figures, which gives the motif newfound sexual implications. The sense of depth fashioned by composition in 'The Murderess' is created by colour in 'The Death of Marat I' through the use of dark shadows that serve as creators and definers of space. The wall's warm oranges have disappeared and been replaced by harsher shades of turquoise and green, thus highlighting the blood on the bed quilt and male figure's chest. Overall the colours are darker and harsher, the painting method less delicate, the composition less detailed and the tone more bitter and sincere. The final composition, 'The Death of Marat II,' is simplified further still in terms of composition: the bed is no longer at a diagonal and the shadows are absent, thus eliminating any noteworthy depth and simplifying the composition so that it merely consists of vertical and horizontal lines - an appearance strengthened by the paintwork, which is at its most vigorous. The use of colour has again changed; it has become blocked according to the area of the composition. This further highlights the blood on the bed, which is, unlike the two other versions, only on the hand and its surrounding area, where it would have actually been after Tulla and the artist's final meeting. A final touch, combined with the reduced composition that increasingly focuses attention on to the main aspects of the works (the male, the female and the blood) that, all in all, makes the motif's intention and statement all the more clear and the attack on Tulla Laursen absolutely comprehensible.

In 'The Green Room' the individual is presented in anger and in isolation, thus the fundamental mood presiding over all the paintings is a fear of loneliness. This fear is shown in Munch's writing at the time; to escape his situation, to achieve some sort of respite, he wrote about himself in the third person:

"Tired, out of sorts and sick - he awoke - and started drinking."

When he was younger he adopted a similar method to escape from the pain caused by his sister's and mother's deaths. In the same way painting was Munch's remedy. He began producing work without any moral over tones that appear purely self-indulgent, rather than 'striving to fathom man's role in the universe,' he depicts a specific man, himself, inside a room in a brothel, drinking with a whore - 'Zum Sussen Madel,' attempt sexual activity with a woman who is not consenting - 'Desire,' or trapped with no escape: the door is shut - 'Hatred' - or blocked by those he wants to avoid - 'Jealousy.' Again the nature of his painting reveals Munch's personal feelings and mentality. 'The Green Room' shows the progression of Munch's reaction to his separation from Tulla Laursen. First comes 'The Murderess,' the initial depiction of the event, fresh in memory, then 'Zum Sussen Madel' shows the initial reaction - an intoxicated fling with a whore. 'Desire' represents the yearning for his lost love and her bleak fear and rejection of him. 'Hatred' and 'Jealousy' are self explanatory by their names, together they show Munch's wavering emotions. 'Consolation' can be seen as an anomaly as it was a motif initially conceived for 'The Frieze of Life' almost fifteen years before. 'Cupid and Psyche' shows a vision of the couple meeting again or a memory of the couple when they were together. Finally the series is concluded by a return to the memory of the break-up ('The Death of Marat II'), one that is changed and distorted, showing the cycle is a vicious one. 'The Green Room' series presents an artist on the edge, bitter, intoxicated and lonely - a man on the brink of collapse.