Comment:
Munch’s works based on "The Pretenders" are unique among his hundreds of Ibsen-related motifs. There are a number of graphic works linked to other plays as well, but the significant series of woodcuts (and a few lithographs) for "The Pretenders" seems to have been created with a specific illustration project in mind. The descriptions of scenes are explicit, the depictions of the characters consistent and central points of the plot throughout the drama have been chosen. Whether he actually received a commission to illustrate an edition of "The Pretenders", or whether he merely counted on or hoped for such an assignment, we don’t know. Since the vast majority of the drawings for this play seem to be part of the same intended or real project, they have much of the same character as the woodcuts. They are less like the free imaginings over themes that interested Munch personally, and to greater degree concrete representations of the action and situations in the play, even though we cannot always point to a specific dialogue or scene as the basis for every single drawing.