Andreas Bjølstad

Andreas Bjølstad of 1888, in the Munch Museum, depicts a member of the Bjølstad family — relatives on his mother's side, his aunt Karen Bjølstad having raised him and his siblings after their mother's early death from tuberculosis. The family connection gave this portrait a different emotional register from his commissioned bourgeois portraits: the obligation was personal and affectionate rather than purely professional, and the handling shows the greater chromatic confidence that his recent Paris exposure was bringing to his technique. By 1888 Munch was producing portraits that showed his Naturalist formation being inflected by Impressionist colour handling, the palette opening from the subdued tonalities of his early work toward the brighter, more atmospheric approach of his later portraits. The Bjølstad family connection is also biographically significant: Karen Bjølstad remained one of Munch's most constant supporters throughout his life, and the extended family portraits of this period document his gratitude for her role in his upbringing.

The handling displays the looser, more colour-aware technique Munch developed after his Paris exposure, with patches of warm and cool tone building the face rather than smooth blended academic modelling. The relatively informal posture and direct but relaxed gaze give the portrait a private, unguarded quality suited to a family sitter.