Children in the Forest

Children in the Forest by Edvard Munch from 1901, held at the Munch Museum, depicts children within a woodland setting — a subject that connects to the universal fairy-tale symbolism of the forest as a place of mystery, childhood discovery, and latent danger. Munch, who had explored childhood anxiety in earlier works, here turns the forest subject toward something more ambiguous — children in the forest could be innocently at play or symbolically lost, and Munch's characteristic treatment of his subjects kept both readings available simultaneously. His Norwegian woodland settings, with their birches and dark conifers, carried different associations from the domestic garden subjects of French Impressionism.

Munch renders the forest setting with his characteristic expressive handling, using vertical brushstrokes for the tree trunks that create a sense of enclosure around the small figures. His palette for a forest interior would use the greens, browns, and filtered light of the woodland atmosphere, punctuated by the lighter tones of the children's clothing.