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The National Portrait Gallery’s 2025 exhibition, Edvard Munch Portraits, offers far more than just a look at iconic artworks. It dives deep into the psychological layers of Munch’s world, peeling back the surface to reveal the passion, conflict, and complexity of the man behind the brush. Running from March 13 to June 15, 2025, this compelling display of 40 works turns London into a stage for Nordic Expressionism at its most intimate and intense.
More Than The Scream
Most people know Munch for The Scream, that iconic cry of existential dread. But this exhibition goes beyond the familiar image, revealing a man teeming with emotion and contradiction. Love, rage, vulnerability, rebellion; it’s all there, painted in bold strokes. His portraits aren’t passive studies; they’re battles, confessions, and sometimes even accusations.
Exhibition Highlights: Love, Revenge, and Everything Between
Dr. Daniel Jacobson (1908)
Munch painted this after suffering a breakdown, casting his psychiatrist not as a healer, but as a dominating presence. The portrait burns with tension; its tone is far from flattering.
Ernest Thiel
Legend has it that Munch punched through the canvas during this sitting. That raw energy lives on in the finished piece, a chaotic blend of gratitude and resentment towards the banker who supported him.
Andreas Munch Studying Anatomy (1886)
A portrait that simmers with unease. Munch’s younger brother is captured mid-study, while a skull beside him serves as a chilling reminder of life’s fragility.
The Bohemian Years: Cafés, Ghosts, and the Unseen
In the smoke-filled cafés of Kristiania and Berlin, Munch found kinship with anarchists and spiritualists. His style took a Symbolist turn — think floating heads, shadowy voids, and a famously eerie Self-Portrait with Skeleton Arm. These were years of experimentation, fuelled by ideas and absinthe.
Obsession Captured: The Brooch, Eva Mudocci (1902)
This lithograph is Munch at his most personal. Eva Mudocci — his muse and lover — is depicted with hypnotic eyes and flowing hair that seems almost alive. You feel his longing in every line.
Complex Patrons: Admiration Meets Disdain
Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche
Munch didn’t hold back here. Set against a dramatic, almost dystopian backdrop, this portrait of Nietzsche’s sister seethes with his dislike, especially given her ties to Nazi ideology.
Felix Auerbach (1906)
In contrast, this portrait is glowing with admiration. Munch paints the physicist with warmth and energy, clearly inspired by Van Gogh’s palette and intensity.
The Guardians: Loyalty on Canvas
After his recovery in 1909, Munch surrounded himself with portraits of those closest to him, his so-called “guardians.” One especially touching photo shows him standing among them, as if drawing strength from their painted gazes. These were more than subjects; they were anchors.
Exhibition Details
Dates: 13 March – 15 June 2025
Location: National Portrait Gallery, St Martin’s Place, London WC2H 0HE
Art That Dares to Feel
Munch’s portraits do more than capture a likeness; they dig deep into the psyche, exploring mortality, madness, love, and grief. This exhibition doesn’t just show who Munch painted, it reveals why. And in doing so, it invites us to reflect on our own tangled emotions and relationships. Through his unflinching honesty, Munch offers not just art, but a mirror.
