:56:04
In July 1894, at the age of 31,
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having painted for 14 years,
created some 80 canvases,
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organized 30 exhibitions,
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Edvard Munch receives
his first serious recognition
:56:19
as an artist,
:56:21
500 miles from his own homeland,
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the publication in Berlin
of four essays
:56:27
by the influential art-critic
Julius Meier-Graefe,
:56:31
Stanislav Przybyszewski
and two other German critics,
:56:38
the first evaluation
of Edvard Munch's art
:56:40
and its importance
for the contemporary age.
:56:46
At this time,
Strindberg is in Paris,
:56:49
already separated from his wife,
living in the utmost poverty,
:56:54
engaged in chemical experiments,
:56:56
trying to make gold from copper,
:56:59
about to begin the writing
of his short story Inferno,
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an autobiographical study
of psychological collapse.
:57:10
At this time, Edvard Munch is
beginning to suffer from agoraphobia,
:57:15
a fear of open spaces.
:57:20
He walks close to walls
and dreads to cross an open square.
:57:25
He had a stroke on Monday evening
:57:29
and died three days later.
:57:34
The book written by Meier-Graefe,
:57:37
Przybyszewski and
the two other critics
:57:42
becomes a milestone
:57:46
in understanding Edvard Munch's work.
:57:52
A paraphrase of a line by Goethe
provides the best formula