Fisherman on a Green Meadow

Fisherman on a Green Meadow from 1902 depicts a solitary figure in the Norwegian coastal landscape near Åsgårdstrand, combining Munch's interest in the symbolic resonance of isolated figures with the more naturalistic plein-air practice that ran alongside his Symbolist work. The fisherman — a man at work in the landscape, carrying the tools of his trade across a meadow — was a figure from the traditional Norwegian coastal world that Munch observed during his Åsgårdstrand summers. Unlike the existentially charged figures of his major Symbolist works, this fisherman is rendered with a quality of ordinary dignity, a working man observed without projection of metaphysical anxiety. The Munch Museum holds this as part of its collection of his naturalistic work.

Munch applies a relatively bright, naturalistic palette to the green meadow scene, with the figure placed in a convincing outdoor space bathed in Norwegian summer light. The handling is more directly observational than his Symbolist figure paintings, the brushwork adapted to describing specific textures of grass, clothing, and sky.