How Did Edvard Munch Die?
Edvard Munch died of natural causes on 23 January 1944, in Oslo, aged 80. He spent his last decades as a wealthy recluse and died of pneumonia, during the Nazi occupation of Norway.
The man who painted the most anxious image in history had a surprisingly long life. He just lived it almost entirely alone.
Here is how the end came, and what he left behind.
How Munch died
Died: 23 January 1944, in Oslo.
Age: 80.
Cause: pneumonia, in old age.
Context: Nazi occupied Norway.
Legacy: he left his entire estate to the city of Oslo.
The long, lonely final act
After his nervous collapse in 1908, Munch bought a quiet estate called Ekely on the edge of Oslo.
He lived there alone for nearly thirty years, with very few visitors, surrounded by his own paintings. He called them his children and could not bear to part with them.
Painting to the end
He never stopped working. Into his eighties he kept making landscapes, portraits of his housekeeper, and unflinching self portraits of his own aging body.
In one famous late picture he stands between a clock and his bed, calmly facing the fact that time was running out. The whole arc of that life is in Edvard Munch: The Complete Story.
Death under occupation
Germany occupied Norway in 1940. The Nazis had already branded Munch's art degenerate, yet the local collaborators tried to claim him as a national hero.
He refused all contact and lived in fear they would seize his collection. In late 1943 a huge explosion in Oslo harbor blew out the windows of his house. The cold he caught in the damaged home turned into the pneumonia that killed him weeks later.
The gift to a city
Munch had no children and no close family at the end. In his will he gave everything to the city of Oslo.
It was an enormous hoard: more than a thousand paintings, tens of thousands of prints, and countless drawings, including versions of The Scream. The city eventually built a museum to hold it all.
FAQ about how Munch died
How did Munch die? Pneumonia, in 1944, at the age of 80.
Where did he die? At Ekely, his estate near Oslo.
Did the Nazis affect his final years? Yes. They occupied Norway and had branded his art degenerate.
What happened to his art? He left all of it to the city of Oslo.
Did he die alone? Yes. He lived as a recluse for decades.
The loudest scream, the quietest end
Munch outlived nearly everyone, dying rich and famous and completely alone at 80, with around a thousand of his own paintings stacked through a freezing house.
The man who gave the world its loudest scream died in total silence. Why that scream haunted him in the first place is here: why Munch painted The Scream.