A timeline of Munch's life
1863 Born on 12th December in Løten, Hedmark.
1864 The family moves to Kristiania (Oslo).
1868 Munch’s mother dies from tuberculosis.
1877 Munch’s sister Sofie dies from tuberculosis, 15 years old.
1880 Munch discontinues his engineering studies and decides to become a painter.
1881 Student at The Royal Academy of Drawing in Kristiania (Oslo).
1882 Rents a studio near Stortings plass. The painter Christian Krohg corrects his work.
1884 Comes into contact with Hans Jæger and the Kristiania Bohemians.
1885 Exhibits at the World Exhibition in Antwerp. Study trip to Paris.
1886 Participates in the Autumn Exhibition with the painting The Sick Child, called Study. This arouses a storm of protests.
1889 First solo exhibition in Kristiania. Spends the summer in Åsgårdstrand. Receives a State grant for artists. Travels to Paris in October – begins studying with Léon Bonnat. His father dies.
1890 At St. Cloud outside Paris. Spends the summer in Åsgårdstrand and Kristiania. Receives a second State grant for artists. Travels to France in November.
1891 Paris and Nice. Summer in Norway. Receives a third State grant for artists. Travels to Paris in the autumn. Makes sketches for The Frieze of Life.
1892 Paints Despair which he later develops into the motif The Scream. Exhibits at Verein Berliner Künstler. The exhibition is closed after one week due to protests.
1893 Berlin. Associates with August Strindberg, Holger Drachmann, Dagny Juel, Stanislaw Przybyszewski etc. The Frieze of Life begins to take shape. Paints The Scream and Madonna.
1894 The first etchings and lithographs are printed in Berlin.
1895 Berlin and Paris
1896 Works with illustrations for Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal. Prints colour lithographs and his first woodcuts at Clot’s printing studio in Paris.
1898 Paris and Berlin. Meets Tulla Larsen in Kristiania.
1902 Exhibits The Frieze of Life – 22 paintings, at the Berlin Secession. Introduced to Dr. Max Linde in Lübeck. Is wounded in the left hand during the break-up with Tulla Larsen in Åsgårdstrand.
1903 Berlin, Paris and Lübeck. Becomes a member of the Société des Artistes Indépendants.
1905 Successful exhibition in Prague. Resident at various clinics due to nerve problems and misuse of alcohol.
1906 Introduced to the court at Weimar. Makes proposals for theatre decorations for Ibsen’s Ghosts and Hedda Gabler for Max Reinhardt’s Chamber Theatre production at the Deutschen Theater.
1907 Berlin. Paints a frieze for the foyer of Max Reinhardt’s theatre. Summer and autumn at Warnemünde on Germany’s Baltic coast.
1908 Winter in Berlin. Summer in Warnemünde. Has a nervous breakdown in Copenhagen and admits himself to Dr. Jacobson’s Clinic. Receives the Royal Order of St. Olav.
1909 Returns home to Norway in May. Settles in Kragerø. Begins work on the proposal for the decoration of the University Hall in Kristiania.
1912 Awarded his own exhibition space at the Sonderbund Exhibition in Cologne. His work is placed beside that of Cézanne, Gauguin and Van Gogh.
1914 Berlin and Paris. Summer in Kragerø, Hvitsten and Jeløya. The University accepts Munch’s proposed project for the University Hall.
1916 Buys Ekely – the property just outside Kristiania. The decoration of the University Hall is unveiled in September.
1918-19 Publishes the document The Frieze of Life in connection with his exhibition at Blomqvist in Kristiania. Contracts Spanish influenza.
1922 Commissioned to decorate the employees’ canteen of Freia Chocolate Factory in Kristiania.
1928 Works on a proposal for the decoration of Oslo Town Hall.
1929 Builds a new winter studio at Ekely.
1930-31 Contracts an eye disease.
1933 Receives the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Olav.
1944 Dies peacefully at Ekely on 23rd January. In his will, he leaves all his remaining work to Oslo Kommune (The City of Oslo): c. 1 100 paintings, c. 18 000 prints, c. 4 500 watercolours and drawings, 6 sculptures, 92 sketch books and numerous letters and other correspondence.
1963 The Munch Museum opens.