Two Women on the Shore

There are two women on the shore.
One, dressed in white, faces the sea, while the other is clad in black.

The scene is set on the coast of Åsgårdstrand.
It is a gentle landscape, strewn with round boulders of various sizes.

In 1898.
Munch began to roughly carve the woodblock with his own hands.
Later, in 1906, he completed it as a multi-color woodcut in his Berlin studio.

In the late 1890s, he was preoccupied with expressing the fear and despair brought by human love.
Through the physical and spiritual transformations of women.
A theme he explored throughout his life.
It was the three stages of woman: the saint, the prostitute, and the old woman as a symbol of death.

The literary world of the time harshly denounced the hypocrisy inherent in the family system.
Men harbored longing for women.
At the same time, they also harbored an absolute fear of old age and death.

Munch visualized these conflicting emotions.
A young woman, clad in pure white, bright as if reflecting the light of the midnight sun itself, gazes at the sea with a yearning for the future.
And beside her, an old woman enveloped in darkness.