Fertility

Edvard Munch's 'Fertility' (1902) is a monumental allegorical subject — the theme of fertility and the generative forces of nature and human life depicted through his characteristic combination of symbolic figure and landscape. His engagement with fertility as a theme connected to his broader investigation of the elemental forces of life, love, and death that pervaded his symbolic subjects throughout his career. The fertility theme allowed him to celebrate life's generative force in counterbalance to his many subjects of anxiety, death, and isolation.

Munch renders the fertility allegory with the bold, simplified handling of his most monumental symbolic subjects — the figures embodying the theme given the archetypal quality he sought in his symbolic compositions. His palette in subjects celebrating life's generative power tends toward warmer, more positive tones than his anxiety subjects. His handling of the figure or figures within the landscape setting creates the environmental context for the symbolic theme.