Standing before a window in the dead of night, a young girl draws back a curtain to gaze at the street from her darkened room. Deep shadows envelop the interior, obscuring all but the suggestion of a rounded piece of furniture at the lower right. The darkness, combined with the sharply tilted floor, gives a sense of precariousness and isolation to the figure. Loosely applied brown, blue, and violet tones enhance the melancholy atmosphere. The window serves as a symbolic barrier, separating the interior from the outside world, but also as a membrane, through which moonlight casts glowing rectangles upon the floor. Although the girl\u2019s actions suggest a narrative, the painting only provides mystery\u2014we cannot see her facial expression, nor what she observes.<\/p>\n
Girl by the Window<\/em> belongs to a group of nocturnal scenes painted by Edvard Munch in the early 1890s, all characterized by moody blue tonalities. Around that time he penned a manifesto in which he declared that artists should depict \u201cliving people who breathe and feel, suffer and love.\u201d This focus on the psychological realities of human existence found its ultimate expression in Munch\u2019s iconic work The Scream<\/em> (1893; Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo).<\/p>\n","short_description":"Edvard Munch\u2019s life and art have come to epitomize modern notions of anxiety. Created the same year as his renowned The Scream<\/em>, this painting depicts a young girl in her nightgown gazing out at the city from her darkened room. The steep angle of the floor and the deep shadows that obliterate almost everything in the room create an unsettling and enigmatic scene.","dimensions":"96.5 \u00d7 65.4 cm (38 \u00d7 25 3\/4 in.); Framed: 110.5 \u00d7 79.4 \u00d7 8.9 cm (43 1\/2 \u00d7 31 1\/4 \u00d7 3 1\/2 in.)","dimensions_detail":[{"depth":null,"width":65,"height":96,"diameter":null,"clarification":null},{"depth":8,"width":79,"height":110,"diameter":null,"clarification":"Framed"}],"medium_display":"Oil on canvas","inscriptions":"Inscribed lower right: E - Munch","credit_line":"Searle Family Trust and Goldabelle McComb Finn endowments; Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection","catalogue_display":" Woll EM 303<\/p>","publication_history":"Dr. Relling, \"Der Fall Munch,\" Die Kunst f\u00fcr Alle 8, no. 7 (1893), p. 102.\n\nHarold Holst Halvorsen, Katalog av Edvard Munchs Kunstverker samlet av Harold Holst Halvorsen, Kunsthandler (Oslo, 1952), p. 4 (ill.).\n\nParis, Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay, Munch et la France, exh. cat., 1992, fig. 89.\n\nJan Kneher, Edvard Munch in seinen Ausstellungen zwischen 1892 und 1912: Eine Dokumentation der Ausstellungen und Studie zur Rezeptionsgeschichte von Munchs Kunst (Worms, 1994), pp. 10, 15, 369.\n\nJay A. Clarke, \u201cGirl Looking out the Window\" in Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 30, 1, (2004), pp. 70-71 (color ill.). \n\nJay A. Clarke, \"Munch's Critical Reception in the 1890s and His 'Place' in History\" in Seeing and Beyond: Essays on Eighteenth- to Twenty-First-Century Art in Honor of Kermit S. Champa (New York, 2005), pp. 191-92, 199, fig. 3.\n\nGerd Woll, \u201cUse and Re-Use in Munch\u2019s Earliest Paintings,\u201d Munch Becoming \u201cMunch\u201d: Artistic Startegies 1880-1892, Exh. cat. (Munch Museet, 2008), ill. 84, p. 93-94, p. 97, ill. 98, p. 100, p. 150, p. 179, p. 199, p. 226, cat. 171. \n\nGerd Woll, Edvard Munch: complete paintings: catalogue raisonn\u00e9, Vol. 1, (London, 2009), cat. no. 303.\n\nAnne Buschhoff, \"Liebe, Angst und Tod in Werken von Edvard Munchs Zeitgenossen-Max Klinger, Odilon Redon, F\u00e9licien Rops, F\u00e9lix Vallotton und andere,\" Edvard Munch: R\u00e4tsel hinter der Leinwand, ed. Dorothee Hansen, Exh. cat. (DuMont, 2012), p. 74, ill. 75, p. 166, (ill.), p. 221. \n\nJames Rondeau, ed., Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago: Highlights of the collection (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2025), 87 (ill.).\n\nJames Rondeau, ed., Highlights of the Art Institute of Chicago (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2026), 141, 261, no. 104, (ill.).","exhibition_history":"Kristiania (present-day Oslo), Juveler Tostrups Gaard, Edvard Munch's Maleriudstilling, September 1892, no. 45.\n\nBerlin, Verein Berliner K\u00fcnstler, Sonder-Ausstellung des Malers Edvard Munch aus Christiania, November 5\u201319, 1892, no. 23; traveled to D\u00fcsseldorf, Eduard Schulte, November 1892; K\u00f6ln, Eduard Schulte, December 1892; Berlin, Equitable-Palast, December 1892 \u2013 January 1893; Copenhagen, Skandinavisk Kunstudstillings Lokaler, February \u2013 March 1893; Dresden, Victoriahaus, May 1893.\n\nLugano, Museo d'Arte Moderna, Edvard Munch, September 19\u2013December 13, 1998, no. 15\n\nVienna, Graphische Sammlung Albertina \"Edvard Munch: Themes and Variations\" March 14-June 22, 2003, cat. \n84.\n\nOslo, Munch Museum, \"Munch becoming Munch: Artistic Strategies, 1880\u20131892,\" October 8, 2008\u2013January 12, 2009, cat. 171 (ill.).\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, Becoming Edvard Munch: Influence, Anxiety, and Myth, February 14\u2013April 26, 2009, cat. 14 (ill.).\n\nBremen, Kunsthalle Bremen, Edvard Munch - Mystery behind the Canvas, October 15, 2011-Febiary 26, 2012, no. 21 (ill.).","provenance_text":"Arthur von Franquet (died 1931), Braunschweig, from 1893 [acquired directly from the artist; see correspondence in Munch Museum archives, Oslo]; by descent to his nephew Herbert von Franquet, 1931. Sold to Neue Galerie, Vienna, 25 September 1935 [letter from Otto Kallir Nirenstein, Neue Galerie, to Edvard Munch, 26 September 1935, in Munch Museum archives, in which he states that he bought the picture the previous day and it \"stammt aus der Sammlung Franquet,\" copy in curatorial file]. Harald Hort Halvorsen, Oslo, 1937 [bought in Paris in 1937 according to Halvorsen 1952]; sold by him to P\u00e5l Kavli, Oslo, c. 1937; by descent to Kavli\u2019s second wife, Reidun Kavli (died 1996) [see correspondence and notes in curatorial file]; sold to Mr. Allan Andersen, Denmark; Luc Bellier, Paris as agent for Allan Andersen; sold to the Art Institute, 2000.","edition":null,"publishing_verification_level":"Web Cataloged","internal_department_id":14,"fiscal_year":2000,"fiscal_year_deaccession":null,"is_public_domain":true,"is_zoomable":true,"max_zoom_window_size":-1,"copyright_notice":null,"has_multimedia_resources":true,"has_educational_resources":false,"has_advanced_imaging":false,"colorfulness":19.8644,"color":{"h":209,"l":41,"s":49,"percentage":0.001904076437244497,"population":20},"latitude":41.8795754511281,"longitude":-87.6226082268448,"latlon":"41.879575451128,-87.622608226845","is_on_view":true,"on_loan_display":null,"gallery_title":"Gallery 245","gallery_id":2147479701,"nomisma_id":null,"artwork_type_title":"Painting","artwork_type_id":1,"department_title":"Painting and Sculpture of Europe","department_id":"PC-10","artist_id":44014,"artist_title":"Edvard Munch","alt_artist_ids":[],"artist_ids":[44014],"artist_titles":["Edvard Munch"],"category_ids":["PC-10"],"category_titles":["Painting and Sculpture of Europe"],"term_titles":["oil on canvas","Post-Impressionism","interiors","oil painting","oil paint (paint)","window","night","light","girl","domestic","curtains","blue (color)","blue","nineteenth century","19th century","painting techniques","painting","painting","paint","canvas","paint","oil paintings (visual works)","painting (image making)","painting","european painting","domestic scenes","night scenes","children"],"style_id":"TM-7547","style_title":"Post-Impressionism","alt_style_ids":["TM-15636","TM-13203"],"style_ids":["TM-7547","TM-15636","TM-13203"],"style_titles":["Post-Impressionism","nineteenth century","19th century"],"classification_id":"TM-66","classification_title":"oil on canvas","alt_classification_ids":["TM-10387","TM-78","TM-9","TM-54"],"classification_ids":["TM-66","TM-10387","TM-78","TM-9","TM-54"],"classification_titles":["oil on canvas","paint","oil paintings (visual works)","painting","european painting"],"subject_id":"TM-12285","alt_subject_ids":["TM-14921","TM-13355","TM-12751","TM-15436","TM-14542","TM-12191","TM-11843","TM-15162","TM-10120","TM-8868","TM-10118"],"subject_ids":["TM-12285","TM-14921","TM-13355","TM-12751","TM-15436","TM-14542","TM-12191","TM-11843","TM-15162","TM-10120","TM-8868","TM-10118"],"subject_titles":["interiors","window","night","light","girl","domestic","curtains","blue (color)","blue","domestic scenes","night scenes","children"],"material_id":"TM-2451","alt_material_ids":["TM-13502","TM-2577","TM-3124"],"material_ids":["TM-2451","TM-13502","TM-2577","TM-3124"],"material_titles":["oil paint (paint)","painting","paint","canvas"],"technique_id":"TM-4273","alt_technique_ids":["TM-3971","TM-14210","TM-3891"],"technique_ids":["TM-4273","TM-3971","TM-14210","TM-3891"],"technique_titles":["oil painting","painting techniques","painting","painting (image making)"],"theme_titles":[],"image_id":"d7df2633-3b40-f570-c906-211503a37cde","alt_image_ids":[],"document_ids":["fd96c5e5-7f49-7bed-efd4-99220baabc90"],"sound_ids":["fd96c5e5-7f49-7bed-efd4-99220baabc90"],"video_ids":[],"text_ids":[],"section_ids":[],"section_titles":[],"site_ids":[],"suggest_autocomplete_boosted":"The Girl by the Window","suggest_autocomplete_all":[{"input":["2000.50"],"contexts":{"groupings":["accession"]}},{"input":["The Girl by the Window"],"weight":42357,"contexts":{"groupings":["title"]}}],"source_updated_at":"2026-08-21T12:53:22-05:00","updated_at":"2026-08-27T15:11:44-05:00","timestamp":"2026-09-01T23:15:46-05:00"},"info":{"license_text":"The `description` field in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License (CC-By) and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu. 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