Edvard Munch's Grave

You don’t have to be an art history buff to recognize the work of Edvard Munch. With its waves of bright colors swirling around an anguished man, “The Scream,” his most iconic painting, catches the eye of any viewer.

Strangely, Edvard Munch’s grave shows no sign of the fluid lines and vivid pigments seen in so many of his paintings. The artist is laid to rest beneath a stoic bust of himself in the humble corner of Vår Frelsers Gravlund (Our Savior’s Cemetery) in Oslo.

With its sharp corners and dark color, the base of the statue does little to symbolize the artist lying below. Only the bust, which shows Munch’s weary, solemn face, hints at the darkness that seemed to so often dog the famous painter.

Death was an underlying theme in Munch’s work. Though his paintings were colorful, a certain sense of gloom seems to creep into each image. Many of his paintings touched upon themes like physical and mental illness, pain, and of course, death.