Art! Art! Art! › Works

Dance of Life

Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch's Dance of Life, painted in 1899–1900, is held by the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design. The wide canvas sets dancing couples on a shoreline under a low moon, with three women at the front who are often read as different moods or stages of love.

Where to see it

Dance of Life is in the collection of the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, which is also its listed location. Works in large collections can be moved, rotated or temporarily withdrawn from view, so check the museum's official website for current display status, opening hours and ticketing before you visit.

What to look for in person

Three women, three moods

Start by reading the painting from left to right. On the left stands a young woman in a light dress, turned towards the dancers. In the centre a woman in red dances with a man in dark clothes. On the right a woman in black stands apart, still and watchful. Many viewers and writers interpret the trio as phases of love or of a life: expectation, passion and loss. Notice how each figure is set against the open meadow, so the contrast in dress colour carries much of the story.

The moon and its reflection

Look past the dancers to the sea. A low moon hangs above the horizon, and its reflection on the water forms a vertical band of light. This shoreline motif appears in a number of Munch's paintings from the 1890s and helps give the scene its hushed, nocturnal atmosphere. See how the column of light sits behind the central couple, quietly linking the sky, the water and the figures in the foreground, and how the dark line of the shore divides the composition.

The red dress and flowing lines

Step closer to the central couple. The red dress sweeps outward and curls around the man's feet, as if drawing him into the dance. Munch builds the scene with simplified shapes, broad areas of colour and curving outlines rather than fine detail, an approach associated with Symbolism and the art of the 1890s. In the background, other couples move across the grass in looser, more animated forms, offering a contrast to the stillness of the women standing at the edges.

About the painting

Dance of Life dates from 1899–1900 and measures 125 x 191 cm, a wide horizontal format that lets the scene unfold like a frieze. It is generally considered part of Munch's Frieze of Life, a group of works he developed around themes of love, anxiety and death, and which he thought of as belonging together rather than as isolated pictures. Seen in that context, the dance on the shore becomes less a record of a particular evening and more a meditation on how attraction, joy and loneliness sit side by side.

In front of the canvas, it helps to look in two stages. First stand well back to take in the overall structure: the horizon line, the vertical reflection of the moon, and the balance between the solitary figures at either side and the couple at the centre. The symmetry is deliberate, and the eye tends to settle on the red dress. Then move closer to see how the forms are handled. Contours are simplified, colour is applied in large zones, and the dancers in the background are treated more loosely than the women in front.

The painting rewards slow viewing rather than a quick glance. Compare the poses of the women on the left and right, notice where each one is looking, and consider how the open landscape both connects and separates the figures. Before planning a trip specifically to see the work, confirm on the museum's official website that it is currently on display.

Key facts

More by Edvard Munch

• Vampire — Munch Museum
• Jealousy
• Anxiety — Munch Museum
• Starry Night — J. Paul Getty Museum
• Inger on the Beach
• Night in Saint-Cloud — National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design
• Self-Portrait with Cigarette — National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design
• Self-Portrait. Between the Clock and the Bed — Munch Museum
• Vampire — Munch Museum
• Puberty — National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design
• Evening on Karl Johan
• The Scream — National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design

Sources

• Wikidata Q3208135
• www.nasjonalmuseet.no