The Sun Edvard Munch Buy Art Prints Now
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by
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Published on June 19, 2020June 19, 2020 / Updated on July 6, 2026
Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000

Introduction

The Sun is one of Edvard Munch's great public paintings. It belongs to the monumental decorations he made for the University of Oslo Aula after 1909, and it shows a radiant sun spreading over sea, rocks and horizon. For readers who know Munch mainly through The Scream, The Sick Child or Death in the Sickroom, this painting can feel almost surprising. [1] [3]

That surprise is useful. The Sun shows that Munch's art is not only a language of anxiety, sickness and grief. It is also a language of energy, scale, public space and renewal. [4]

At a Glance

  • Artist: Edvard Munch
  • Title: The Sun
  • Context: University of Oslo Aula decorations
  • Period: 1909-1916 monumental phase
  • Subject: Radiant sun over sea and landscape
  • Cluster role: Public, monumental and late-career counterpoint

Why This Painting Matters

The Sun matters because it changes the scale of Munch's art. Many of his most famous works are intimate or psychologically compressed. The Sun is expansive. It radiates outward, filling public architectural space rather than holding the viewer in a private room or on a narrow bridge. [1]

The painting also belongs to the period after Munch's 1908 treatment in Copenhagen. The biography route should not reduce this phase to a simple recovery story, but the shift toward public commissions, large scale and brighter imagery is real and important. [5]

Looking Carefully

The composition is dominated by a single radiant centre. The sun sits above the horizon and sends rays across sea, sky and land. The image is highly ordered, with the horizon stabilising the composition while the rays create explosive movement. [3]

The painting's power comes from contrast. The white centre is intense, but it is surrounded by bands and rays of colour. The sea and rocks give the image physical grounding, preventing the sun from becoming pure abstraction. [4]

Unlike The Scream, where sky and landscape press down on the body, The Sun expands outward. It is still Munch, but the emotional direction has changed. [6]

Video Guide

This selected video from MUNCH offers useful visual context before the detailed analysis continues.

Monumental Munch

The Aula decorations reveal a public side of Munch that can be missed if the cluster focuses only on private suffering. The Sun was made for an institutional space, not for an intimate interior. It had to work at scale and at a distance. [1]

That setting changes the meaning of the image. The sun is not only a natural motif. It becomes an organising force for a public room, a visual centre around which education, ceremony and collective life could gather. [4]

Comparison Works

These routes were checked against the local Edvard Munch sitemap during production. [7]

  • Self-Portrait Between the Clock and the Bed brings light into a private room and places the ageing artist between time and rest. The Sun sends light outward into public space. [4]
  • Starry Night is the night-time counterpart. Both works use sky, water and radiance, but The Sun is declarative while Starry Night is quieter and more inward. [3]
  • Girls on the Bridge offers another landscape route through water and reflection. The Sun is more monumental, but it shares Munch's ability to make place and light carry mood. [4]

Things You Might Miss

  • The painting is public, not only personal. [1]
  • The horizon line keeps the radiating energy grounded. [3]
  • The sun is both a natural subject and an architectural centre. [4]
  • The work complicates the idea that Munch is only a painter of darkness. [5]
  • It belongs to the same broad career as The Scream, but it answers a different need. [2]

Interpretation

The Sun is best read as an image of force, renewal and public scale. It does not erase the darker Munch. Instead, it shows how wide his emotional range became. The same artist who could make anxiety visible as a scream could also make light into a monumental structure. [4]

That makes the painting important for the cluster. It prevents the Munch section from becoming one-note. The Sun gives readers a way to understand late Munch as ambitious, public and expansive, not only retrospective or tragic. [7]

FAQs

What is The Sun by Edvard Munch?

It is one of the monumental paintings Munch made for the University of Oslo Aula, showing a radiant sun spreading over sea, rocks and horizon. [1]

Why is The Sun important?

It shows Munch working at public scale and gives the cluster a bright counterpoint to his better-known images of anxiety, illness and grief. [4]

References

  1. University of Oslo, Aula decoration context, accessed 5 July 2026.
  2. MUNCH, "Edvard Munch (1863-1944)," official artist page, accessed 5 July 2026.
  3. Gerd Woll, Edvard Munch: Complete Paintings, London: Thames & Hudson, 2009.
  4. Patricia G. Berman, ed., Edvard Munch: The Modern Life of the Soul, Museum of Modern Art, 2006.
  5. Sue Prideaux, Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream, Yale University Press, 2005.
  6. eMunch, Edvard Munch's Writings: The English Edition, accessed 5 July 2026.
  7. TheHistoryOfArt.org, Edvard Munch sitemap and local internal-link validation, checked 5 July 2026.