Winter Night

Winter Night from 1900 depicts the Norwegian landscape after dark in winter conditions — a subject that combined the physical austerity of the Norwegian winter with the psychological quality of the night as Munch understood it: a time when the self's defenses are lowered and its deeper currents become more visible. Winter nights in Norway had a specific character — the near-complete darkness of December and January at high latitude, broken only by snow's reflective brightness — that gave painters very limited but visually striking material. The Kunsthaus Zürich holds this as one of its significant Scandinavian modernist acquisitions.

Munch creates the winter night's visual character through a palette dominated by deep blue-black, the darkness of the sky and shadowed snow modulated by the faint light that snow always carries. A few warm tones of house light or reflected fire create the only warmth in an otherwise cold tonal world.