Edvard Munch

Madonna

1894-95; Oil on canvas, 91 x 70.5 cm; National Gallery, Oslo

Madonna is a painting by the NorwegianexpressionistEdvard Munch. Munch painted five versions of the Madonna between 1894 and 1895, using oils on canvas. One of them measures 91 x 70.5 cm.

The version owned by the Munch Museum of Oslo was stolen in 2004 but recovered two years later. Another is owned by businessman Nelson Blitz.

On Sunday, 22 August 2004, Madonna and a version of The Scream were stolen from the Munch Museum by masked men wielding firearms. The robbers forced the museum guards to lie down on the floor while they snapped the cable securing the paintings to the wall and escaped in a black Audi A6 station wagon, which police later found abandoned. Both paintings were recovered by the Oslo Police on 31 August 2006. The following day Ingebjørg Ydstie, director of the Munch Museum, said the condition of the paintings was much better than expected and that the damages, including a 2.5 cm hole in the Madonna, could be repaired.

The Two Fridas, 1939

Shortly after her divorce from Diego Rivera, Frida completed this self-portrait of two different personalities. In her diary, Frida writes that this painting originated from her memory of an imaginary childhood friend. Later she admitted it records the emotions surrounding her separation and martial crisis. On the right, the part of her person which was respected and loved by Diego, is the Mexican Frida in Tehuana costume. In her hand she holds an amulet bearing the portrait of Diego as a child. On the left, a more rather European Frida in a lacy white Victorian wedding dress, the Frida that Diego abandoned.

The Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, 1884–1886, at The Art Institute of Chicago, depicting petite bourgeoise and prostitutes on the right bank of the river. Shadows are cast all over the scene, except a little girl staring out of the painting.