Comment:
Every aspiring artist will start building up his skills by drawing static objects such as buildings. Indeed, many of Munch’s early drawings depict churches, the Roman Old Aker Church – the oldest building in Kristiania (Oslo) - being the most frequent choice. The church was located close to the Munch family’s home, conveniently situated on a hill with its newly built bell tower from 1861 widely visible and – last but not least – of simple structure which was relatively easy to draw.

The Munch Museum holds an interesting set of three drawings of Old Aker Church, showing the same motif at different stages of completion (MM.T.02613, 02614, 02615). The final version was further worked into an oil painting (PE.M.00582). While it is common for artists to produce a preliminary sketch prior to embarking on a painting, it is highly unusual to make a sequence of drawings which documents step-by-step the building-up of the design: first the outline, next the focus on the essential, and finally filling in the details. As such they should be seen in a didactic context; it is quite likely that Munch produced them as part of a formal art exercise. (Ute K. Falck)