Moonlight (1893) - Edvard Munch & Terror

Personal Reflection

Edvard Munch's Moonlight is the epitome of terror within expressionist art. Munch, all too familiar with death himself, confronts us face to face with it. We are placed at eye level with the mysterious figure who's unrelenting stare pierces us through the canvas. Clad in black and shrouded in darkness the androgynous individual casts an ominous shadow across the yellow house behind them eclipsing the little color found in the painting. Looking closer at said shadow, one realizes it does not match the individual it is cast from, instead it exposes the true nature of the visitor at your door: the hooded grim reaper. The vertical lines found in the artwork, from the fence to the paneling of the house, alludes to bars in a cell. Like prisoners, we cannot escape the fate that all living things are bound to. Sometimes, like the figure in the window, we are victim only to watch when death comes arriving to others. However just as the shadow projects towards the observer, we know death looms over us all. It is just dependent on when he decides to turn around.