In Munch’s writings, forests are often seen as sacred spaces: ‘They went into an opening in the forest – on both sides stood tall conifers and birches – lush and dark against the twilight evening air – the wet grass sparkled. They walked up and down silently, heads bowed – they were enveloped in an atmosphere of solemnity, as though in a church.’ This woodcut is one of a number of later impressions of this subject that Munch made, reworking a print he had first conceived in 1897.

Courtesy the Gundersen Collection