Two Nudes

Two Nudes from 1903 belongs to Munch's practice of depicting the female nude in a studio or interior context, here presenting two figures whose relationship to each other introduces a social and psychological dimension absent from his single-figure nudes. The double nude — two women whose bodies and spatial relationship imply a complex dynamic of companionship, comparison, or tension — had precedents in the academic tradition of the paired graces but carries in Munch's hands the psychological intensity of his sustained engagement with female subjectivity. The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo holds this as part of Norway's national Munch collection.

Munch places the two nude figures in a composition that balances their different poses and physical qualities against each other, using the contrast between the figures as the primary compositional element. The interior setting is kept minimal, focusing all attention on the relationship between the two bodies.