Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863 – 1944).

The Sick Child
Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863 – 1944).

It is a portrait of his older and favorite sister Sophie (Johanne Sophie b. 1862) who died of tuberculosis in 1877 at the approximate age of 15. Munch considered the painting "a breakthrough in my art"

Munch created numerous versions of the painting. The fourth version, painted in 1907, is presently in the Tate Gallery in London. In 1928, it was on display in the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden. In the 1930s and 1940s, the National Socialists labeled Munch's paintings as "degenerate art", and removed his work from German museums. They were taken to Berlin to be auctioned. Norwegian art dealer Harald Holst Halvorsen acquired several of Munch's paintings, including the 1907 version of The Sick Child, with the goal of returning them to Oslo. In 1939, it was purchased by Thomas Olsen and donated to the Tate Gallery collection.^[