Winter at Nordstrand

Winter at Nordstrand from 1900 depicts the coastal district south of Christiania in the Norwegian winter, a subject that allowed Munch to explore the specific aesthetic conditions of a Scandinavian coastal winter — the compressed daylight, the grey sea, the bare trees, and the particular quality of winter light that Scandinavian painters had been investigating since the Romantic era. This work's designation in the 'degenerate art' collection indicates that it was among the Norwegian and German Expressionist works confiscated by the Nazi regime from German museums in 1937, making its provenance history a significant dimension of its cultural biography.

Munch uses the winter landscape's restricted palette — greys, whites, dark browns, and the cold blue of winter sky — to create a composition of deliberate tonal austerity appropriate to the season. The coastal winter light, flat and directionless, unifies the composition without creating strong shadows.