Comment:
On a summer evening in 1905 a heated argument was brewing between Munch and his friend and fellow painter Ludvig Karsten. The location is Munch’s house in Åsgårdstrand but the cause of the scuffle is not certain. It may have been an accusation that Munch supposedly behaved inappropriately towards a lady, or perhaps there were insinuations that he was a coward, since he hadn’t volunteered for active duty in connection with the mobilisation after Norway declared its independence from Sweden on 7 June.


In any case the two drinking cohorts ended up tumbling down the stairs and onto the ground in front of the house. Karsten ended with a deep cut over his eye, Munch broke his left arm, and the pride of both suffered a scratch or two. After the incident Munch left Åsgårdstrand in all haste and did not return until four years later, after a nervous breakdown and a stay at Dr. Jacobson’s clinic in Copenhagen.

Although the episode happened in 1905, several years passed before he developed it in drawings, prints and paintings. This drawing is close to the etching from around 1916. Since the etching is reversed in relation to the drawing, it is likely that the drawing was made before the etching.