Madonna
1894–1895 · Oil on canvas · National Museum of Norway, Oslo
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About this work
- Artist
- Edvard Munch (1863–1944)
- Year
- 1894–1895
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 90.5 × 70.5 cm
- Collection
- National Museum of Norway, Oslo (one of five painted versions)
- Movement
- Symbolism
- Series
- The Frieze of Life
A half-length woman with closed eyes and long dark hair arches back in a pose of ecstasy, bare to the waist, encircled by a red halo and a swirling dark ground. Munch painted five versions of the composition between 1892 and 1895 as part of The Frieze of Life, his cycle on love, anxiety and death; this one, from 1894 to 1895, is in the National Museum in Oslo. The title is deliberately ambiguous, fusing the Virgin with a lover at the moment of conception, and the lithograph version he made in 1895 adds a foetus and sperm-like forms to the border. The loose, dragged brushwork and the dissolving outline of the body were radical for the time. The version in the Munch Museum was stolen in 2004 and recovered in 2006.
This print reproduces the whole work, uncropped, from a high-resolution scan of the original. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
A dark, dissolving nude with a red halo that suits a bedroom or dim study rather than a family room, at 16×24 in black on a deep wall. Hang it alone or with another Symbolist work; it does not sit easily beside bright colour.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Symbolism painting
- Era
- 19th century (1894–1895)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Mood
- intimate
- Rooms
- living room, dining room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 16×24. Prints at 12×18, 16×24, 24×36 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×36 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.
Framing. The gallery ground is part of the print, so frame it without a mat — black suits the deep tones of this period; natural wood lightens it.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is Madonna in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was Madonna painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
An exhibition poster
The same artwork as a gallery exhibition poster — title, artist & date typeset beneath the image on a soft ground.
The full-bleed edition
The painting printed edge to edge, filling the whole sheet (very slightly cropped to fit).


















