Spruce Forest

Spruce Forest from 1903 depicts the dark interior or edge of a Norwegian spruce forest — a subject with strong Symbolist resonance in Scandinavian painting, the dense conifer forest being associated with both the primordial Norwegian landscape and the threatening, enclosing quality that forests have in Northern European mythology and folk tradition. Munch's forest paintings of this period were partly influenced by his time in Germany's heavily forested landscape but rooted in the Norwegian forests he had known since childhood. The Munch Museum holds this as part of its collection of his forest and landscape subjects, which have received less critical attention than his major figure paintings but are among his most atmospheric works.

Munch uses the dense spruce forest to create a near-vertical composition of dark tree trunks and deep green foliage that compresses space and creates an atmosphere of enclosure quite different from his open coastal landscapes. The palette is restricted to dark greens, blacks, and the occasional light touch of sky visible through the canopy.