Sunset, Nordstrand

Sunset, Nordstrand from 1900 depicts the sky over Nordstrand, the coastal district south of Christiania (Oslo) where Munch occasionally painted, capturing the specific drama of a Norwegian coastal sunset — the sky's rapid color transformation from gold through orange to deep crimson and violet. Sunsets had iconic status in the history of art from Turner through the Romantic painters, and Munch's engagement with the subject participated in this tradition while inflecting it with his own psychological intensity: the sunset, associated with endings and the approaching night, was for him an emotionally charged natural event rather than merely a picturesque spectacle. The work's current location is untraced.

Munch uses the sunset's dramatic color transformation as justification for the most saturated and emotionally direct palette in his landscape practice, with warm oranges and reds against the deep blues and purples of the approaching night sky. The sea's surface reflects the color drama above.