For Edvard Munch, rain is not just a natural phenomenon, but also a reflection of the human soul, trapped in its longings and struggles. In Carl Johan in the Rain and Rain (1902), the falling raindrops are not merely rain, but a metaphor for loneliness and alienation. Munch’s Oslo, still undergoing modernization, is coated in grey, like heavy skies, reflecting the alienation between people. The city is full of people walking, but each is in their own internal world, disconnected from each other. The same emptiness that characterized the city then resonates even in 2024, when humanity is so fragmented and divided. Those streets that once connected us, today separate us—ideologies, experiences, and different realities—just like Munch’s characters, isolated from each other, even under the same rain.
In Rain, Munch uses shades of red, brown, and grey to capture not only the weight of the moment, but also a deeper reflection on existential loneliness. Here, the rain does not purify or cleanse; it fills the space with a heavy sadness, as if the storm never ends. Today, in an era where the world is so divided, Munch's rain may serve as a reminder that we are all under the same skies, but separated by invisible chasms. We stand before a social, political, and emotional storm, where the rain is not just water, but an echo of our inner conflicts.
What Munch does with the colors is much more than an aesthetic gesture: each hue, each shadow, not only reflects the period in which he painted, but also the universal human emotions, which, although they have always existed, remain relevant even today. The rain in his work is much more than a natural element: it is a symbol of what we cannot ignore, of what connects us as humans, but also of what separates us.
Jessica Sharon
01.12.2024
In the photo: in the rain 1902, Edvard Munch
In the photo: Carl Johann in the rain 1891, Edvard Munch
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