Puberty

1895: National Gallery, Oslo

The motif of a girl or woman sitting on the edge of a bed is one which Munch repeated many times in his career. This painting is a repeat of an earlier version destroyed in a fire. It is hard to say how close it is to the original. The dramatic device of the shadow cast by the girl on the wall behind her, suggesting some brooding presence or alter-ego, is probably an image which Munch developed after his move to Paris in 1889 and was not in the original work. Interestingly, it is a device which also appealed to Gauguin.