Frankfurter Bahnhofsplatz during Rathenau's Funeral
Edvard Munch
Norwegian, 1863–1944
1920
A lithograph in which Edvard Munch condenses a massed crowd at Frankfurter Bahnhofsplatz during Rathenau’s funeral, using agitated, smeared marks to register communal grief and unease.
What strikes you first is the crowd of simplified, anxious faces pressed into the foreground against dark, ghostly buildings, rendered with quick, smudged strokes that make the scene feel raw, crowded, and claustrophobic.
The work shows Munch applying expressionist printmaking to public events—translating political violence and collective mourning into a new, emotionally charged use of lithography that broadened modern art’s engagement with social trauma.
Medium
Lithograph
Dimensions
composition: 12 1/16 x 16 3/8" (30.6 x 41.6 cm); sheet: 14 13/16 x 19 1/2" (37.7 x 49.5 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Purchase
Accession
1217.1968
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
