Munch and the fjord

At the age of 21, Munch spends his summer vacation with his family in Borre. It is also this year that he discovers Åsgårdstrand. Here he walks along the long, curved line of sparkling lights on the shore through Fjugstadskogen. Today part of the municipality's coastal path, full of nature experiences and Munch motifs.

A few years later, the Munch family made Åsgårdstrand their permanent summer residence. And in 1898, Munch bought his first house ever here. In terms of motifs, he now changed his focus, and in the coming years also painted a number of pictures showing the garden and the house, and everyday life in the town. The models are the children of the neighborhood, fishermen, helpers, friends and acquaintances. It is also now that “The Girls on the Bridge” is created. The beach and the fjord are still a central landscape.

Åsgårdstrand was redemptive for Munch as an artist, as a painter of the spiritual life of modern man. Here the artist found inspiration for several decades – and man peace of mind and friendship. Here the landscape enters as a living link in his art. And with it also the summer and the sun. It is here that Munch discovers and becomes the painter of the bright, shadowless Nordic summer nights.

Not least, it is the human dramas in Munch's paintings that find their landscape and scene in Åsgårdstrand. For Munch, the shoreline becomes an image of life itself: "Through the paintings the winding shoreline winds. Outside lies the sea, which is always in motion, and under the crowns of the trees the diverse life is lived with its joys and sorrows."

Munch's use of the beach and the Oslofjord was already referred to in his time as the "Åsgårdstrandslinjen" in his art: "The curved and soft, expressive and colorful shoreline, which recurs in his paintings and etchings, as a common denominator for his style."

The fjord is not just an artistic motif. It was frequently used by Munch for boat trips, swimming and fishing. His house was always full of guests, and the garden was full of fruit, berries and vegetables. A small paradise with panoramic views and proximity to the Oslofjord.

In this way, Åsgårdstrand runs like a common thread through large parts of Munch's life and art. And today, as a visitor, you can walk in Munch's footsteps yourself: To places he painted, either on your own or participate in organized walks in Munch's landscape. You can visit and get a tour of Munch's studio and house, which is actually the world's first Munch museum. You can swim on Munch's beach and explore his fairy forest.

Munch kept his house in Åsgårdstrand for the rest of his life, the memories of all the stories from there, - and not least the landscape is still an important inspiration in his artistic work. How he took the memories of the impressions and atmospheres from Åsgårdstrand with him into old age, his doctor in later years KE Schreiner tells about: "Munch himself also likes to talk about his memories from here, about his small living room and garden, about how he has sat on the beach on summer evenings and watched the sailboats glide past in the faint breeze with light-clad youth and languid accordion music, how he has seen the young girls gather in groups like motley bouquets of flowers. But it is especially the magical moonlight through the rows of pine trees and the sea behind that he remembers."

Of all the places Munch lived and worked, Åsgårdstrand is the place where he has left the most clear mark: Here stands his only intact, preserved home, here the many stories about Munch and the people he was close to are still alive. And here the landscape can still be recognized from Munch's art - where the moon pillar constantly settles over the water like gold over the fjord - and the sea that whispers and sighs between the stones...

Solfrid Zaccariassen

Head of Munch's House
The Vestfold Museums