ALS in French, one page, 5.5 x 4, August 12, 1936. Letter to a friend. In full (translated): "Your letter made me very happy. Thanks a thousand times! I remember our beautiful days and the good friends [we had] in Paris. I heard from Rambosson and Marcel Reja a few years ago. I will write in a few days.” Attractively cloth-matted and framed with a portrait and image of ‘The Scream’ to an overall size of 24 x 14.5. Scattered creases, otherwise fine condition.
Munch first traveled to Paris in the 1880s, where he drew great inspiration from the likes of Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec for how they used color to convey emotion. He spent much of his time between Paris and Berlin from 1892 to 1908, usually summering back home in Norway. During the later part of this period his anxiety and alcoholism grew increasingly worse, and he sought out treatment in Copenhagen, eventually returning to Oslo for good. The first of his Paris acquaintances mentioned in this letter, Yvanhoe Rambosson, was a writer, poet, and art critic who had reviewed Munch's art exhibited at the 1897 Salon des Independants for La Plume, praising it for uniqueness while also commenting on its physical unpleasantness. The other name, "Marcel Reja," was a pseudonym used by psychiatrist Paul Meunier to publish 'Art of Madmen,' the first work to address the art of mental patients from an aesthetic point of view. It was around the time of this letter that Munch’s work was declared ‘degenerate art’ in Nazi Germany, and in 1937 eighty-two of his paintings were confiscated from German museums. Given the subject matter of Munch's paintings and his own emotional instability, this is a particularly intriguing association. An immensely desirable letter tied in with Munch's artistic life in Paris. Pre-certified PSA/DNA.
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