"Melancholy"
(click on the picture for larger image)
Already as a child Edvard’s sister Laura
was diagnosed as a “melancholic”, and she suffered from
severe depressions throughout her life. Edvard was  very
close to his family and had a good relationship with his sisters.
He felt a deep sympathy with Laura and also a great responsibility.
During one of her depressive periods he made sketches of her. The
sketches later formed the basis of the painting “Melancholy”
(“Laura”) in 1899. A new version that was made in 1911
is enclosed in the exhibition at Göteborg Museum of Art. The
red pattern of the cloth in the painting has sometimes been interpreted
as coagulated blood, and sometimes as a cross-section of the brain.
The flower on the table was often used by Munch as a symbol of art
that catches its nourishment from blood.
Munch writes about his painting “Melancholy”
in his story “Det gula huset” (“The yellow house”):
I let the melancholic sit by the flaming
read table with the window in the background – The object was
to make her grand and mighty and stupendous in her black mute eternal
sorrow – That is just how the melancholic woman whom I saw
at a mental hospital was sitting – She did not recognize her
sister who spoke to her in gentle words – she did not understand
anything – her big black eyes had no lustre – stared empty
and immobile out into the room –“
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