Comment:
In this pastel and pencil drawing the forms are greatly simplified – consider the father’s face for example. The sleeping person right at the front of the focal plane – probably Munch’s brother Andreas – is so vague in the forms and so boldly cropped that it takes a while for us to realize what it is. In May 1885 Munch visited Paris for the first time, and one of the artists who made the greatest impression on him was Edouard Manet, who used the same ‘random’ croppings as an effect in many of his pictures. It is not improbable that this drawing was a response to Munch’s first encounter with modern French art. (MB)