Albert Kollmann and Sten Drewsen

Albert Kollmann and Sten Drewsen by Edvard Munch from 1902, held at the Hamburger Kunsthalle, is a double portrait of two men from Munch's German circle — Albert Kollmann was a German art dealer and critic who was among Munch's most important early champions in Germany, and Sten Drewsen was a Norwegian acquaintance. Double portraits — two figures occupying the same pictorial space — present particular compositional and psychological challenges: how to balance two presences, how to suggest their relationship without narrative prescription. Munch's treatment of the double portrait here reflects his interest in the social dynamics between men as much as in individual psychology.

Munch organizes the two figures in spatial relationship to each other, using tonal contrast and relative positioning to suggest their personal dynamic. His handling differentiates the two sitters through physiognomy, posture, and possibly clothing, allowing each to retain individual presence within the shared pictorial space.