Harris Schrank Fine Prints

Edvard Munch (1863-1944) Kristiania Boheme I (or Kristiania Bohemians I; Drinking Session/Drinking Bohemians), etching, drypoint and burnishing, 1895, signed in pencil lower right, also signed by the printer Felsing lower left. References: Willoch 9, Schiefler 10, Woll 15, third state (of 3). Kristiania Bohme I was included in the Meier-Graefe Portfolio, a portfolio of intaglio prints by Munch, printed by the firm of Angerer in Berlin in an edition of 65; impressions printed by Otto Felsing (including some such as this impression signed by him, were printed outside of the portfolio). In excellent condition, with full margins, 8 1/2 x 11 3/4, the sheet 15 5/8 x 21 1/4 inches.

A fine strong impression, printed in brown ink on an ivory wove paper.

The figures in the composition are probably a student named Holmsen at the right (with the hat); the writer Axel Maurer (1866-1925) in the center, and Munch himself in profile at the far left. Munch spent much of the 1880s with a group of young intellectual radicals, and often in these years he depicted himself and his friends as they discussed ideas, pursued women and wine in bars and cafs.

Oslo was called Kristiania (or Christiania) until 1925.