At the Coffee Table (1883) by Edvard Munch

At the Coffee Table - Edvard Munch - 1883

Artwork Information

TitleAt the Coffee Table
ArtistEdvard Munch
Date1883
Mediumoil,canvas
Dimensions45.5 x 77.5 cm
Art MovementImpressionism
Current LocationMunch Museum, Oslo, Norway

About At the Coffee Table

The artwork entitled “At the Coffee Table” was created by Edvard Munch in 1883. This piece is executed in oil on canvas, and it measures 45.5 by 77.5 centimeters. It represents the Impressionism movement and is categorized as a genre painting. The artwork is part of the collection at the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway.

“At the Coffee Table” depicts an intimate scene focused on an individual possibly engaged in a moment of contemplation or rest. The figure, seated at a coffee table, is shown in a dimly lit interior that suggests a comforting domestic environment. The brushwork is loose and expressive, a quality typical of Impressionist paintings, where the play of light and shadow is often more important than precise detail. Munch’s use of muted colors, combined with the visible brushstrokes, evokes a sense of the figure’s interior world, possibly one of solitude or pensiveness.

The painting’s composition leverages the contrast between the warmth of the interior and the cool, diffused light that hints at a window to the exterior on the left. The central figure, with its back towards the viewer, creates an air of mystery and allows the audience to project their own emotions onto the scene. The common, everyday act of sitting at a coffee table becomes the vehicle for a deeper exploration of human experience, a thematic element that Munch would continue to elaborate on in his later works.

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