Eva Mudocci

1903

Eva Mudocci was a professional violinist whom Edvard Munch met and fell in love with in 1902. In this lyrical portrait, her slightly tilted face is surrounded by an aura of cascading hair executed in swirling strokes of lithographic ink made directly on the stone.

Of the portrait, Mudocci recalled: “He wanted to make a perfect portrait of me but each time he began on an oil painting he destroyed it, because he was not happy with it. He had more success with the lithographs, and the stones that he used were sent up to our room in the Sans Souci Hotel in Berlin accompanied by a note that said: ‘Here is the stone that fell from my heart.’”