Page 34 - Studio International - February 1971

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After the failure of Gauguin's exhibition in
February 1895, we have no information about
their meetings. Strindberg was completely
absorbed in trying to make gold, and was living
in isolation : 'A winter of horror in illness,
poverty, loneliness and much work... have only
one pair of trousers, with a hole on the knee, so
I must keep my hat over it when I visit the
Embassy ... I am tired of these evictions ...
sheltered in one hotel after another' (letter, May
1895).
After a six-weeks visit to Ystad, a town in
south Sweden, Strindberg returned to Paris at
the end of August. In a letter to his Swedish
painter friend, Richard Bergh, he writes, 'I am
so far from Gauguin and the fine arts, but if you
want to print my introduction ... I am at your
service.' From these lines one must conclude
that the letter in which he refused to write an
introduction to Gauguin's catalogue was actually
intended to serve as an introduction—and
Gauguin had been justified in assuming this.
During the following year, 1896, Strindberg
was again meeting Edvard Munch. They had
previously been together in Berlin in the group
which met in the restaurant Zum Schwarzen
Ferkel, but at that time Strindberg was rather
suspicious of Munch. Now, however, Munch's
sincere appreciation of Strindberg had a positive
influence on the writer, who at that time was 4
haunted by anxieties and persecution mania.
Strindberg sat as a model for Munch and also
wrote an essay about his exhibition. Munch
himself wrote about this as late as 1929, 'I have
a copy of an article by Strindberg, about some
of my paintings —it is interesting—it is poetry
in prose, to the paintings The Cry, The Vampire,
The Kiss, Woman in Love, and Jealousy . .
This article was actually published in Revue
Blanche, June I, 1896, and is reprinted here as
an example of the deep personal involvement
in artistic perception of which Strindberg was
capable in spite of his crisis of 'Inferno'. It is
worth noting that he showed such understanding
of Munch whereas only one year earlier he had
reacted negatively to Gauguin's work and failed
to understand Van Gogh's. In so far as Munch is
related to these painters one can deduce that
Strindberg's understanding of him is a result
of the influence Gauguin had on Strindberg
during the short time they were together.
The article about Munch (translated in 1940
by J. P. Hodin) deserves detailed study because
it shows how much the experience and private
life of an art critic can influence his judgment.
I refer to jealousy by Munch, which is
reproduced here, and to Strindberg's text
relating to this painting (which also appears as a
lithograph).
Strindberg's concept of jealousy is 'a healthy chief members of the circle at the Berlin 3 Puvis de Chavannes
The Poor Fisherman 1881
sense of cleanliness in a mind which hates to restaurant. Reference should also be made to the Oil on canvas
have contact with someone of the same sex Occult Diary, which indicates how Strindberg, 28 3/8 x 36 in.
through the medium of another person.' This up to 1901, perhaps even later, wrestled with Coll: Musée du Louvre, Paris
idea came to him because of his experiences in and suffered from this problem. 4 Edvard Munch
the group in Zum Schwarzen Ferkel and is Modern psychology has analysed jealousy as Jealousy 1896
described in detail in The Genesis of an Aspasia. a defence mechanism against impulses of Lithograph
Here we meet, only lightly camouflaged, the infidelity or homosexuality. For instance, 47.5 X 57.2 cm.
Coll: Museum of Modern Art, New York
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