House with Red Virginia Creeper 1900

Here we see Edvard Munch's “House with Red Virginia Creeper”, painted with oils on cardboard. The house, rendered with simplified forms and muted colors, dominates the composition. The titular creeper sprawls dramatically across the facade. Munch’s loose brushwork and emphasis on color create an atmosphere of unease. The red creeper becomes a symbolic device, it destabilizes our sense of architectural space. The house itself loses definition, dissolving into a field of semi-abstract shapes and textures. The overall effect is one of transience, as if the building is being consumed by nature. Consider how Munch uses color not to represent reality but to express inner states. The creeper, usually a sign of natural beauty, is here a harbinger of decay. Through these formal choices, Munch transforms a simple landscape into a meditation on time, memory, and the ephemeral nature of existence.