LONDON (Reuters) – A new exhibition of portraits by Edvard Munch opens in London this week, shining a light on an important aspect of the Norwegian painter’s work and his life.

“Edvard Munch Portraits”, running at London’s National Portrait Gallery March 13-June 15, features some 45 of his works, including depictions of himself, his family, friends, collectors as well as commissions.

“It shows Munch as being a more social person than is often assumed. It takes us beyond ‘The Scream’. It takes us beyond Munch as the painter of existential isolation and loneliness,” exhibition curator Alison Smith told Reuters.

“It shows him as a man who was very connected with the artistic and intellectual currents of his time, but a man also who sought the protection of people who were active in the areas of law, business and medicine,” she added, noting the latter provided a stabilising influence for Munch who struggled with mental and physical health issues throughout his life.

The exhibition is the first of its kind in Britain to focus on Munch’s portraits and many works, including his 1892 painting of lawyer Thor Lutken, are on show in the country for the first time.

“It’s quite a monochromatic portrait … but if you look very closely, you can see how the sleeve merges into this sort of blue, black moonlit landscape, which is inhabited by two mysterious figures,” Smith said.

The exhibition begins with Munch’s early family portraits. There are then portraits of fellow artists as well as Munch’s patrons and collectors. Munch died in 1944, aged 80.

“Munch painted hundreds of portraits in the course of his long career and they were really fundamental to his practice because in Munch’s art, he always wanted to get beyond surface appearance to probe the inner psychology or motivations of an individual,” Smith said.

“So the portraits work on two fronts. On the one hand, they are representations of a particular sitter at a given moment in time, but also they offer insight into their inner world.”

(Reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Christina Fincher)

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