Astronomical Analysis of Edvard Munch's Starry Night and Related Paintings, Lecture notes of Painting

Download Astronomical Analysis of Edvard Munch's Starry Night and Related Paintings and more Lecture notes Painting in PDF only on Docsity!     ASTRONOMICAL DATING OF EDVARD MUNCH’S SUMMER SKY PAINTINGS Thesis Supervisor: ________________________________ Donald W. Olson, Ph.D. Department of Physics Second Reader: __________________________________ Heather C. Galloway, Ph.D. Department of Physics Approved: ____________________________________ Heather C. Galloway, Ph.D. Director of the University Honors Program     ASTRONOMICAL DATING OF EDVARD MUNCH’S SUMMER SKY PAINTINGS HONORS THESIS Presented to the Honors Committee of Texas State University-San Marcos in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Graduation in the University Honors Program by Ava Glenn Pope San Marcos, Texas May 2010   3  THE SKIES OF EDVARD MUNCH Professor Donald Olson’s Texas State University group has long had an interest in the way Edvard Munch portrayed the sky. He linked the blood-red sky of The Scream to the cloud of volcanic aerosols and other debris that spread worldwide following the eruption of Krakatoa. As part of his research, the group traveled to Norway and found the exact location depicted in The Scream. They verified that the artist was facing to the southwest, exactly the direction where the Krakatoa twilights appeared when at their most spectacular during the winter following the eruption.1 On that same trip Dr. Olson’s group found the site of Munch’s Girls on the Pier in Åsgårdstrand. They determined the artist’s direction of view and showed that the yellow disk in the sky of this painting was setting in the southwest and therefore must be a summer full Moon – not the Sun, as some had claimed.2 As a starting point for a similar analysis of the Getty Center’s Starry Night (Fig. 1), we consulted biographies of Munch, exhibition catalogues, and a detailed year-by-year Munch chronology, which date this painting to 1893.3,4 We were intrigued to see that the list of 1893 works includes two other Åsgårdstrand paintings with astronomical content. In The Storm (Fig. 2), a bright star shines in the stormy twilight sky above Åsgårdstrand’s   4  Grand Hotel. Sunrise in Åsgårdstrand (Fig. 3) features the Sun just above the horizon, with a prominent glitter path stretching across the Oslo fjord. Astronomical dating of these three paintings has some importance because the precise days when Munch visited Åsgårdstrand during 1893 are unknown. Some authors even question whether the artist traveled there at all during that year and imply that he must have created these works from memories of previous visits to the resort.   5            Figure 1:  Edvard Munch, Starry Night, 1893    oil on canvas, 135.6 x 140 cm  The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles  © 2009 The Munch Museum / The Munch‐Ellingsen Group / Artists Rights  Society (ARS), New York      8  MUNCH’S VISIT TO ÅSGÅRDSTRAND IN 1893 We checked two of the most detailed chronologies of Munch’s life, and neither of these makes any mention of a visit to Åsgårdstrand in 1893.5,6 Author Ketil Bjørnstad goes further and explicitly states for the year 1893 that Munch was not on the scene in Åsgårdstrand: During the summer Munch does not go to Åsgårdstrand. Instead, he remains in Germany, paints landscapes with deeply atmospheric, smouldering colour, paints Starry Night, Moonlight and The Storm.7 A recent biography by Sue Prideaux discusses Munch’s stay in Germany in 1893 and likewise concludes: Summer came, and Munch had neither the money nor the inclination to go to Norway.8 But these biographies and chronologies are incomplete. Our research turned up a first- person account that was apparently overlooked by these authors. Jens Thiis, a long-time director of the National Gallery in Oslo, visited Åsgårdstrand in 1893 with several friends, including Edvard Munch and the poet Helge Rode. Thiis wrote: I happened to meet Helge again in Åsgårdstrand. It was his friend Edvard Munch who had invited him there…One day in August, when we were sitting together on the hotel veranda, I had the desire to sketch Helge Rode….9 This drawing, seen in Fig. 4, bears the date of August 17, 1893, handwritten by Thiis in the corner. Figure 4:  Sketch of Helge Rode, by  Jens Thiis, 17 August 1893  Figure 5:  Detail of upper right  corner of Thiis’ Sketch,  “Åsgårdstrand, 17.8.93.  J.T.”    9  Because this account definitely places Munch in Åsgårdstrand, where he could be inspired by the Norwegian skies, we realized that we could possibly identify the celestial objects in Munch’s paintings and determine dates for these works. VENUS IN STARRY NIGHT ?       In the articles and books that we consulted, the art historians who comment on the sky of Starry Night all agree that Munch included the planet Venus. The Getty sponsored a book devoted entirely to an analysis of Starry Night. The author, art historian Louise Lippincott, asserts that: The pink “star” on the horizon in Starry Night is actually the planet Venus…. 10 Lippincott also refers to the “appearance of Venus” in the painting as “the red star on its horizon.” 10 Figure 6: Starry Night, 1893    10  Arne Eggum, former chief curator of the Munch Museum, was apparently the first to make this Venus identification. Lippincott acknowledged that she was “deeply indebted to A. Eggum for pointing out the star symbolism in Starry Night during his visit to Malibu….” 10 Eggum explained his reasoning: The first title Munch gave the painting Starry Night was Evening Star. As we know, the evening star is the planet Venus….11 Later authors adopted the planetary identification made by Eggum and Lippincott. For example, Marit Lande asserts that the “light on the horizon is the reflection of the planet Venus….” 12 Dieter Buchhart states that this painting includes “the bright evening star and its prominent swath of light … the planet of Venus….” 13 These descriptions are somewhat confusing – some seem to be referring to the red light on the horizon and others to the bright object up in the sky – but all of these art historians agree that Munch’s Starry Night includes Venus. MOON IN STARRY NIGHT ? Louise Lippincott provides an astronomical explanation for the vertical white column visible in the garden: The view depicted in Starry Night looks down from the Grand Hotel window and across this enclosed private garden. The great linden trees form a mound silhouetted against the night sky, and their bulky shape is pierced by a dot and a streak of light from the moon hidden behind them.14 She argues that her lunar theory is reasonable: …Munch already had developed the dot and streak as a way of representing a light source and its reflection; it seems plausible to identify the motif in the Getty Museum’s Starry Night as the moon and its reflection seen through the trees.15   13  By studying the historical photographs, we could see that many of the town’s buildings from 1893 are still standing, and we could see where changes had occurred.   The white fence visible in Munch’s Starry Night is easy to find today, and the original group of linden trees is still standing in the garden of the Kiøsterud estate. To obtain the view for Starry Night, Munch must have been somewhere in the nearby Grand Hotel. A complication is that the hotel burned down in 1930 and then was rebuilt. We used the historical photographs, along with our own topographic survey, to determine the precise location of the original hotel. The southeast corner of the modern hotel is now somewhat farther from the Kiøsterud estate (by about 10 feet) and much closer to the fjord (by about 30 feet). Figure 11: Comparison of modern hotel to the Grand Hotel as it was in Munch’s day.  Yellow  arrow denotes the approximate view of the Starry Night scene as seen from the Grand Hotel    14  We allowed for this in our calculations, using a 3-dimensional computer model to simulate placing Munch on the veranda, on the balcony, and in the windows of the original hotel. We found that we could reproduce the view of Starry Night only from near the center of the upper floor of the old hotel. FLAGPOLE Louise Lippincott argues that Starry Night’s vertical white column with the round dot on the top is “the moon and its reflection seen through the trees.”15 With assistance from Knut Christian Henriksen’s resources, we can offer a different explanation. It is true that Munch depicted summer full Moons and their glitter paths in the fjord in dozens of other works. But glitter paths are reflections in the water and cannot extend up higher than the horizon. In Munch’s other works showing glitter paths, the columns of light stop at the horizon. The vertical white column in Starry Night extends well above the horizon and cannot be a glitter path.                              More than twenty historical photographs, taken from almost all possible directions, show a flagpole with a round ball at the top standing in the Kiøsterud garden. The flagpole no longer exists, but our computer model shows that it stood exactly where Munch painted it and had the correct height (about 45 feet) relative to the group of linden trees. Figure 13: Detail of “Moon”  in Starry Night   Figure 12: Example of Munch’s glitter paths (note  that the light from the reflection of the moon  clearly ends where the water meets the horizon)    15  We discovered a depression in the grass where the flagpole’s base had been. The depression can be found by starting at the corner of the white fence, walking uphill 20 feet along the fence that runs directly away from the water, and then walking 37 feet into the garden directly away from that fence.16 The hypothetical “Moon” and reflection in Starry Night turns out to be a flagpole. The Red Shed To resolve the dilemma posed by Lippincott regarding the existence of a red shed near the large group of linden trees in Munch’s painting we looked at many vintage Åsgårdstrand photographs provided by Knut Henriksen. A small shed outside the garden fence, in exactly the position to be glimpsed through the trees from Munch’s location in Figures 14 & 15:  Historical photographs  from Munch’s time.  The flagpole stands in  the yard of the Kiøsterud House just as it  appears in Starry Night  Figure 16:  Ava Pope, Bob Newton,  and Joseph Herbert standing in the  Kiøsterud yard at the location of  the base of the flagpole    18  But a very bright “star” is clearly visible in Starry Night. What did Munch see? The blue skyglow of Starry Night suggests a Norwegian twilight. Is this morning twilight or evening twilight? STARRY NIGHT = EVENING STAR The composition now called Starry Night was exhibited by Edvard Munch in his lifetime with a variety of titles. According to Arne Eggum and other experts at the Munch Museum, the alternate titles used for this work include The Stars, Evening Star, Night, Starry Heavens, and finally Starry Night.18 We realized that the title Evening Star provides an important astronomical clue, telling us that the bright “star” was observed between sunset and midnight. But like so much else about Starry Night, even this use of the title Evening Star is hotly disputed by some art historians. Several scholars identify the title Evening Star with a composition now known as The Voice, which shows a woman standing in a forest along the coastline near Åsgårdstrand, with a yellow glitter path of moonlight reflecting in the fjord. This title dispute is considered especially significant because Evening Star (whatever painting it was) was shown at Berlin in 1902 in the important position as painting #1 in Figure 21:  The Voice, c. 1896, oil on canvas    19  the first complete exhibition of the Frieze of Life, a group of paintings considered the major work of Munch’s artistic career. Likewise, the catalogue for an exhibition at Oslo’s Diorama Hall in 1904 lists Evening Star as painting #1 in the group called Frieze (Modern Life of the Soul). Munch biographer Sue Prideaux discusses an early exhibition and makes the judgment: The first big question of identity concerns whether…Evening Star in the catalogue, was Starry Night or The Voice. I have come down on the side of The Voice …19 The catalogue for a recent major Munch exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art comes to the same conclusion.20 With help from librarians at Texas State University, the National Library of Norway, and the Munch Museum Library, we located two primary sources that help to resolve this title controversy. A newspaper critic from the Norwegian paper, Morgenbladet, gave the following eyewitness description of a Munch exhibition in Oslo: And turning to his exhibition in the Diorama Hall, I want people to focus their attention on number 1 in the catalogue !"#Evening Star.” What in the world should prevent people from understanding that this is a beautiful picture? The poetry of the summer night, the great tree standing there slumbering in the garden, the fence shining white down towards the sea and the evening star shimmering up in a deep blue sky.21 Figure 22:  Excerpt from Morgenbladet, November 6, 1904.  Underlined in blue are  references to the title Evening Star, the great tree, and the white fence of the Kiøsterud  estate.    20  These details leave no doubt that the writer was describing the painting now known as Starry Night. As further confirmation, the Munch Museum has a series of photographs taken at the Commeter Gallery in Hamburg, Germany. Painting #62 in Figure 23 definitely shows Starry Night, and an accompanying list in Munch’s handwriting includes the title “62 – Abendstern” (German for “Evening Star”). Therefore, despite the contrary claims by some authors, this evidence demonstrates that Munch did use Evening Star as an early title for Starry Night. Figure 24:  Entry number 62 (in Munch’s Handwriting) corresponds to the image in Fig. 23.   Figure 23:  Number 62 is the Wuppertal Museum’s Starry Night painted by Munch c. 1893.    23  Describing the night of August 16-17, 1893, the local Åsgårdstrand paper recorded that the clouds present near sunset quickly disappeared and: Until late in the night the heavens were clear with twinkling stars.23 The night of August 23-24, 1893, was likewise cloudless. We conclude that Starry Night shows Jupiter and the Pleiades during evening twilight, most likely on August 16 or August 23, 1893. THE STORM We realized that The Storm might provide an independent way to determine when Munch visited Åsgårdstrand. A woman in white dominates the foreground of The Storm, while a cluster of women in the middle distance stands near the same fence depicted in Starry Night. A tree bends in the wind in front of lighted yellow windows of the Grand Hotel, the same building from which Munch observed the view for Starry Night. Beyond these connections to Starry Night, The Storm is also of special interest to astronomers because of the bright star visible in the sky just to the north (to the right) of the hotel.24 Figure 27:  The Storm, 1893    24  An actual storm inspired the painting, according to the same eyewitness account that places Munch in Åsgårdstrand during August of 1893. The memoir by Jens Thiis mentions some “beautiful sun-filled late summer days” during this visit to the resort but goes on to describe a sudden change in the weather: One sultry evening…there suddenly began a rustling in the air and a quaking in the tree in front of the hotel. … a gale broke out. … the fjord stood heavy as lead in a foaming uproar. … fishermen’s wives huddled together in a group. All were looking out through the dusky twilight for the fishing boats that were out there – would they all manage to get home safely? The next day, Munch painted the events in his famous picture The Storm…The house with the illuminated windows is the hotel where we stayed, and the woman in white in the foreground is my future wife. 25 The woman in white, previously unidentified in several publications is therefore Ragna Vilhelmine Dons, who married Jens Thiis in 1895. The weather records for July, August, and September list many days with rain but only one “strong thunderstorm” – a spectacular event on the evening of August 19, 1893. Figure 28:  Image of Ragna Vilhemine Dons by Jens Thiis, and painting of Jens  Thiis by Edvard Munch.  Both were on the scene during The Storm.    25  The Oslo paper for the next day confirms that the storm hit during evening twilight: A thunderstorm with magnificent lightning passed over the city around 9 o’clock yesterday evening.26 Another newspaper writer was impressed by the almost unprecedented strength of this storm: …there was a downpour so heavy and lightning so frequent and strong, in a manner that we can scarcely remember.27 What bright star did Munch observe as the storm began to rage? To answer this question, we needed to know which direction the artist was facing. The painting shows the corner of the white fence aligned with the house of the Kiøsterud estate, and a tree aligned with the center of the Grand Hotel. Several authors mistakenly identify the tree in The Storm as a poplar. Knut Christian Henriksen and several other Åsgårdstrand residents are certain that it was a birch, and the caption to an early photograph describes it as the birch tree (“bjørketreet”) painted by Munch. Although the tree has recently been cut down, the stump is still locatable. Using the location of the stump and the corner of the white fence along with many historical photographs we were able to triangulate Munch’s position to within a few feet. Figure 29:  Munch’s preliminary sketch for The Storm.  Red lines indicate  objects that we used to triangulate Munch’s position.    28  The right side of the painting shows the house now known as Russellgården, with its roof almost exactly superposed on the distant horizon. We found that this view is possible only from the upper floor of the nearby Soelberggården house. The current owners of Soelberggården kindly allowed us into their home. We could match Munch’s view of the bend in the road only from a specific room in the upper story. In one of the most moving moments of our trip, we realized that we were standing on the same floorboards by the same window where the artist himself had looked out to watch the rising Sun, more than a century before. Figure 35:  Ava Pope, Marilynn Olson,  Donald Olson, and owners of the  Soelberggården house  Figure 34:  Donald Olson in front of the Soelberggården house.  The circled window  indicates the room from which Munch saw the scene of Sunrise in Åsgårdstrand.    29  Our modern photographs reveal several changes: the trees have grown taller, and Russellgården has undergone some structural modifications, most notably a dormer added to the roof. Knut Christian Henriksen showed us a historical photograph of Russellgården with no dormer, just as painted by Munch. Figure 37:  Historical photograph shows that the Russelgården house (c. 1900)  closely resembles the house in Munch’s painting.  Figure 36:  Photograph from Munch’s window in the  Soelberggården house, taken by Russell Doescher in 2008.    30  Based on our survey we determined that the rising Sun in the painting was near azimuth 80° (that is, 10° north of east). Using the angular width of the boathouse to set the scale, we estimated the Sun to be about 2° to 4° above the horizon, an altitude consistent with the long glitter path in the fjord. Munch could have observed the rising Sun near this position only during the second week of April (ruled out because Munch was then in Germany) or during the first five days of September. Weather records show many mornings in Norway plagued by overcast skies and rain. In 1893 the only date and time consistent with the Sun and the sky in the painting is September 3 at 5:30 a.m.30 The early history of the sunrise painting is somewhat uncertain, and scholars at the Munch Museum tell us that this work may date from a year or even a few years after 1893. A later date consistent with the position of the rising Sun and the weather records Figure 38:  Azimuth of the road (red arrow) and azimuth of the Sun in Sunrise in  Åsgårdstrand as seen from Munch’s window (yellow arrow).    33  North by polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen, in part because Nansen was an early private owner of Munch’s Starry Night. Nansen describes the first appearance of Venus for the winter season in a journal entry written near latitude 78° North (far above the Arctic Circle) on January 8, 1894. Nansen recalls how he, “came on deck and saw a strong red light just above the edge of the ice in the south.” Nansen quickly realized that the spectacular object was, “Venus, which we see to-day for the first time, as it has till now been beneath the horizon. It is beautiful with its red light.” (Farthest North, 1898 edition, Volume I, pp. 368-369.) A Venus apparition like this, with the planet slowly rising nearly parallel to the horizon and remaining within one or two degrees of the horizon during the planet’s entire travel from rising to setting, is possible above the Arctic Circle but cannot occur at the latitude of Åsgårdstrand (59° 21$"%&'()*+ We suggest that the red light on the horizon in Starry Night may be a harbor light near the town of Larkollen on the east side of the Oslofjord. 18 In the exhibition catalogues, the titles in the original languages are Die Sterne (Berlin, 1893), Stjernor (Stockholm, 1894), Stjerner (Oslo, 1897), Abendstern (Berlin, 1902), Aftenstjernen (Oslo, 1904), Nat (Copenhagen, 1906), Stjernehimmel (Copenhagen, 1908), Stjernenat (Stockholm, 1917), and Sternennacht (Berlin, 1927). 19 Prideaux (2005), pp. 209, 353. 20 Edvard Munch, The Modern Life of the Soul (2006), p. 205. 21 Morgenbladet, November 6, 1904. 22 Norway in 1893 had not adopted modern time zones or daylight saving time. Åsgårdstrand (longitude 10° 28' East) used local mean time, 42 minutes ahead of Universal Time. For example, on July 9, 1893, Jupiter rose at 23:16 UT = 11:58 p.m. local mean time at Åsgårdstrand. 23 Gjengangeren, August 20, 1893. 24 The bright star in The Storm is missing from some book reproductions, for example, Edvard Munch: The Modern Life of the Soul, Museum of Modern Art, 2006, p. 113. The star may have been mistakenly identified as a defect and removed from the digital file using Photoshop or an equivalent program. The bright star, above and to the right of the hotel, is clearly visible in the unretouched digital photographs taken by visitors to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, as can be verified at www.flickr.com by using the search terms: moma munch storm. 25 Thiis (1937), p. 307. 26 Dagbladet, August 20, 1893. 27 Aftenposten, August 22, 1893.   34  28 Arcturus had declination +19° 44' in 1893. 29 20:33 UT = 9:15 p.m. local mean time; see note 22. 30 4:48 UT = 5:30 a.m. local mean time; see note 22.   35  Appendix Our research was published in 2 magazine articles and several articles written about our work were published in a variety of newspapers and web pages. The following are a few publications of our work: Griffith Observer, August 2009 Pages 38–56 Astronomi, August 2009 Pages 57–66 Science, 2009 Page 67 Smithsonian.com, July2009 Page 68 Gjengangeren, July 24,2009 Page 69 Dagens Naeringsliv, July 2009 Page 70 38 August 2009 isIToRS Comm To the hilly overlook- ing Hollywood to observe the stars and planets through the telescopes at Griffich Observatory and to enjoy the night sky simu- lacions in the Samuel Oschin Planetarium, Ten miles west of Griffith Parks, on another hill wich a spectacular view of dhe Los Angeles Lasin, they can be awed by a differene kind of starry night a painting at the Getty Center titled Starry Night. Tdvard Munch (1863-1944). the Norwegian artist best known for The Scream, created the Getty Center's Starry Night. A white fence and a group of linden trees ground. A curving shoreline borders the waters of the Oslotjord, which retlects the blue sky- glow of a night in the summer resort town of dominate the fore- Asgéidstrand, One especially bright celestial object stands out among the stars that fill the heavens,' GRIFFITH OBSERVER Page3 ‘The Skies of Edvard Munch Our Texas State University group has long had an interest in the way Edvard Munch por- trayed the sky. We linked the blood-red sky of The Scream to the cloud of volcanic aerosols and other debris that spread worldwide fol- lowing the eruption of Krakatoa, in Indonesia. As part of our research, we traveled to Norway and found the exact location depicted in The Sereaim, We verified that the arcist was facing to the southwest, the direction where the Krakatoa twilights appeared when al Lheir most spectacu- lar during the winter following the eruption.* On that same trip we visited the site of Munch's Girls on the Pier in Asgardstrand. We determined the artist's direction of view and showed that the yellow disk in the sky of this painting was setting in the southwest and there- fore must be a summer full moon not the sun, as some had claimed? nnn FRONT COVER Cosmic Conjunction: Astronomy and Art Almost two years ago, after some of Lhe dust from reopening Griffith Observatory had settled, the Observatory management leam developed an agenda ol priorities and development for the nextseveral years. Griflith Observatory Director Dr. EG Krupp included in the programming iniliatives an effort lo link the arts and astronorry in a series al specially conceived perlormances and events. [he plan was presented Lo the Board of Friends OF Ihe Observatory (FOTO)on 27 March 2008, and subsequently the FOTO Board selected some ot the objectives tor primary FOTO support. The Board was especially interested in the notion of linking the arts and astronomy through Independent Griffith Observatory activities and through cooperative ventures with other institutions. An effort to stage a live performance of Observations, music composed by Symphony in the Glen conductor Arthur Rubinstein for the Intemational Year of Astronomy, as part of an astronomical concert program on Observatory grounds, is now underway. Observatory staff ate now also developing / ight of the idaikyries, a new planetarium show designed to complement the staging of Richard Wagner's entire Ring Cycle by the Los Angeles Opera in 2014, In-the meantime, however, this issue of the Griffith Observer brings astronomy and art together in an article by Dr, Donald Olson and the Texas State University forensic astronomy team on three paintings by the farnous Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. One af these paintings, Stary Night, belongs to the callection of the J, Paul Getty Muscum, Los Angeles. Our front cover this month pairs the Gelly Museurnwith Griffith Observatory, the other hilllop for tress of civilization in southern California, Loacknowledge an unexpected alliance of astronomy and artin your August Griffith Observer. (photagiaph of Getty Center by Atwater Village Newbie, photograph Griffith Observatory by Anthony Cook, cover design by Grace Ramos) 39 GRIFFITH OBSERVER August 2009 Edvard Munch captured the sky for Starry Nightin Asgardstrand, a coastal town in southern Norway, south of Oslo, on. the west side of Oslofiord. Details ofinterpretive interest include the bright “star“on the left and its glitter path on the water, the red light on the horizon, and the white dot and vertical line in front of the silhouetted linden tree, (Edvard Munch, Starry Night, 1893 oil on canvas, 15.6 x 140 cm The J, Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles © 2009 The Munch Museum/The Munch-Ellingsen Group/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York) Asa starting point for a similar analysis of the Gey Center's Starry Night, we consulted biog- raphies of Munch, exhibition catalogues, and a detailed year-by-year Munch chronology, which date this painting to 1893. We were intrigued to see that the list of 1893 works included two other Asgirdstrand paintings with astronomical content. In Zhe Storm, a bright star shines in the twilight sky above Asgardstrand’s Grand Hoel. Sunrise in Asgirdstrand features the sun just above the horizon, with a glitter path stretching across the ford.* Astronomical dating of these three paint ings has some importance because the precise  August 2009 Edvard Munch's Starry Night is in the collection of the Getty Center in Los Angeles, The three-day-old waxing crescent moon hangs over the Pacific, beyond the Getty Center, just after sunset on 12 Decernber 2007, It's the kind of scene that might inspire Munch, (photograph Nathan Copeland) days when Munch visited Asgardstrand during 1893 are unknown. Some authors even question whether the artist traveled there at all during that year and imply that he must have created these works from memories of previous visits to the resort. Munch’s Visit to Asgardstrand in 1893 We checked two of the most detailed chro- nologies of Munch’s life, and neither of these makes any mention of a visit to Asgirdstrand in 1893.°° Author Kecil Bjernstad goes further and explicitly states for the year 1893 that Munch was not on the scene in Asgardstrand, During the summer Munch does not go to Asgardstrand. Instead, he remains in Germany, paints landscapes with deeply atmospheric, smouldering colour, paints Starry Night, Moonlight and The Storm.” A recent biography by Sue Prideaux discusses Munch's stay in Germany in 1893 and likewise concludes, GRITTITH OBSERVER Page 5 Atleast two experts on Munch claimed he did not visit Asgardstrand in 1893, the year to which Starry Night is assigned. The Grand Hotel is the shoreline building on the right. The small building on the far left, with a red roof, also appears in the Munch painting through the fo- liage of the linden trees. (histotical postcard, collection of Knut Christian Henriksen, Asaardstrand) Summer came, and Munch had neither the money nor the inclination to go to Norway.’ But these biographies and chronologies are incomplete, Our research turned up a first-per- son account that was apparently overlooked by these authors, Jens Thiis, a long-time direc- tor of the National Gallery in Oslo, visited Aspardstrand in 1893 with several friends, including Edvard Munch and the poet Helge Rode. Thiis wrote, I happened to meet Helge again in Asgardstrand. It was his friend Edvard Munch who had invited him there...One day in August, when we were sitting together on the hotel veranda, I had the desire to sketch Helge Rode... This drawing bears the date of August 17, 1893, handwritten by Thiis in the corner. Because this account definitely places Munch in Asgirdstrand, where he could be inspired by the Norwegian skies, we realized that we could possibly identify the celestial objects in Munch’s paintings and determine dates for these works. 43 Page 8 Knut Christian Henriksen, in the center between Dr. Don- ald Olson and Ava Pope, provided almost all of the in- formation on local history in Asg&rdstrand and supplied many historical images. (ohotograph Marilynn Olson) GRIFFITH OBSERVER August 2009 The settings of both Starry Night and The Storm ate preserved in this postcard view of As- gardstrand from about 1910, The white fence on the left encloses the linden trees and a pole flying the Norwegian flag. The fence, the trees, and the pole are all seen in Starry Might, The Grand Hotel, near the center, is partially obscured by the birch tree, as it is in The Storm. (collection of Knut Christian Henriksen, As- gardstrand) Flagpole Louise Lippincott argues that Starry Night's vertical white column with the round dot on the top is “the moon and its reflection seen through the trees.” With assistance from Knut Christian Henriksen’s resources, we can offer a different explanation. It is true that Munch depicted summer full moons and their glitter paths in the ford in doz ens of other works, but glitter paths are reflec- tions in the water and cannot extend up higher than the horizon. In Munch's other works show- ing glitter paths, the columns of light stop at the horizon. The vertical white column in Starry Night extends well above the horizon and can- not be a glitter path. More than 20 historical photographs, taken from almost all possible directions, show a flag- pole with a round ball at the top standing in the Kigsterud garden. The flagpole no longer exists, but our computer model shows that it stood exactly where Munch painted it and had the correct height (about 45 feet) relative to the group of linden trees. We discovered a depres- sion in the grass where the flagpole’s base had been. 44 August 2009 Edvard Munch’s viewpoint for the scene in Starry Might must have been near the center of theupper floor of the Grand Hotel, photographed herein about 1910 (collec- tion of Knut Christian Henriksen, Asgardstrand) The hypothetical “moon” and reflection in Starry Night turns out to be a flagpole. What about Venus? Did Munch see Venus during the summer of 1893? ‘Was Venus Visible in 1893? During our visit to Asgardstrand we took photographs from the hotel by day, during evening and morning twilight, and at night. We verified that Munch’s direction of view for Starry Night was generally to the east. The stars on the left side of the painting would lie some- what north of east, while the mees on the right side are south of east. Our computer calculations show that Venus was never visible at or above the eastern horizon during morning owilight or at sunrise on any date in the spring or summer of 1893. At sunset and in evening twilight, Venus was to the west of the hotel (the side away from the fjord), and the planet was never higher than 5° above the geometric horizon at sunset. A steep hill behind the hotel rises with a slope that we measured to be 8°, This hill would have blocked the view of ‘Venus at sunset. ‘Therefore Munch could not have seen Venus from the Asgirdstrand Grand Hotel whether from the front or back of the hotel, whether looking east toward the fjord or west toward GRIFFITH OBSERVER Page Joseph Herbert, Robert Newtor, Ava Pope, Donald Olson, and Marilynn Olson search through primary sources at the Munch Museum Research Library in Oslo, Norway, (photograph Russell Doescher) the hill behind the hotel, whether at moming or evening twilight, on any date in the spring or summer of 1893.17 But a very bright “star” is clearly visible in Starry Night. What did Munch see? The blue skyglow of Starry Night suggests a Norwegian twilight. Is this morning twilight or evening twilight? Starry Night = Evening Star ‘The composition now called Starry Night was exhibited by Edvard Munch in his lifetime with a variety of titles. According to Arne Eggum and other experts at the Munch Museum, the alter- nate titles used for this work include The Stars, Evening Siar, Night, Starry Heavens, and finally Starry Night. We realized that the title Evening Star provides an important astronomical clue, telling us that the bright “star” was observed between sunset and midnight. But like so much else about Starry Night, even this use of the title Evening Siar is hotly disputed by some art historians. Several scholars identify the title Evening Sear with a composi- tion now known as The Voice, which shows a woman standing in a forest along the coastline near Asgardstrand, with a yellow glitter path of moonlight reflecting in the fjord. 45 Page 10 GRIFFITH OBSERVER August 2009 Roger Sinnott uses shadows cast by the sun to measure the slope of Havnegata, the road between the Grand Hotel and the Kigsterud estatein Asgardstrand as part of a topographic survey of the town. (photograph Ava Pope) For example, Munch biographer Sue Prideaux discusses an early exhibition and makes the judgment: The first big question of identity con- cerns whether...Evening Star in the cata- logue, was Starry Night or The Voice. I have come down on the side of The Voice...” The catalogue for a recent major Munch exhibition at the Museum of Modem Art comes to the same conclusion.” With help from librarians at Texas State University, the National Library of Norway, and the Munch Museum Library, we located two primary sources that help to resolve this title controversy. A newspaper critic gave the following eyewit- ness description of a Munch exhibition in Oslo. And turning to his exhibition in the Diorama Hall, I want people to focus their attention on number 1 in the cata- logue—“Evening Star.” ‘What in the world should prevent people from understanding that this is a beautiful picture? The poetry of the sum- mer night, the great tree standing there slumbering in. the garden, the fence shin- Ava Pope, Joseph Herbert, and Donald Olson es- tablished accurate directions in Asg&rdstrand through transit measurements. (photograph Mari- lynn Olson) ing white down towards the sea and the evening star shimmering up in a deep blue sky?! ‘These details leave no doubt that the writer was describing the painting now known as Starry Night. As further confirmation, the Munch Museum has a series of photographs taken at the Commeter Gallery in Hamburg, Germany. Photograph #62 definitely shows Starry Night, and an accompanying list in Munch’s hand- writing includes the title “62—Abendstern” (German for “Evening Star”). Therefore, despite the contrary claims by some authors, this evidence demonstrates that Munch did use Evening Star as an early title for Starry Night. 48 Page 14 GRIFFITH OBSERVER August 2009 The Storm, by Edvard Munch, illustrates the view up Haynegata road as intense weather approaches, but a star stil glows above the buildings and to the right. The view is west. (Edvard Munch, The Storm, 1898 oil on canvas, 92x 131 cm GiftofMr. and Mrs. H. Irgens Larsen and acquired through theLillie P.Blissand Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Funds, The Museum of Modern Art, New York © 2009 The Munch Museum/ The Munch-Ellingsen Group/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York) A woman in white dominates the foreground of The Storm, while a cluster of women in the middle distance stands near the same fence depicted in Starry Night. A wee bends in the wind in front of lighted yellow windows of the Grand Hotel, the same building from which Munch observed the view for Starry Night. Beyond these connections to Starry Night, The Storm is also of special interest to astronomers because it includes a bright star visible in the sky just to the north (to the right) of the hotel.“ An actual storm inspired the painting, according to the same eyewitness account that places Munch in Asgardstrand during August of 1893. The memoir by Jens Thiis mentions some “beautiful sun-filled late summer days” during this visit to the resort but goes on to describe a sudden change in the weather. One sultry evening.,.there suddenly began a rustling in the air and a quak- ing in the tree in front of the hotel... a gale broke out...the fjord stood heavy as lead in a foaming uproar...fishermen’s wives huddled together in a group. All were looking out through the dusky twilight for the fishing boats that were out there—would they all manage to get home safely? ‘The next day, Munch painted the events in his famous picture Zhe Storm... The house with the illuminated windows  August 2009 Photographer Russell Doescher helped establish the exact perspectives of the Munch paintings and documented their current conditions ‘on the scene, (photo- graph Marilynn Ol- son) is the hotel where we stayed, and the wouan in white in the foreground is my future wife.?° The weather records for July, August, and September list many days with rain but only one “strong thunderstorm’ —a spectacular event on the evening of August 19, 1893. The Oslo paper for the next day confirms that the storm hit during evening twilight. A thunderstorm with magnificent light- ning passed over the city around 9 o’dock yesterday evening.” Another newspaper writer was impressed by the almost unprecedented strength of this storm. cathere was a downpour so heavy and lightning so frequent and strong, in a manner that we can scarcely remember.”” What bright star did Munch observe as the storm began to rage? To answer this question, we needed to know which direction the artist was facing, ‘The painting shows the corner of the white fence aligned with the house of the Kiasterud GRIPTITH OBSERVER Page 15 estate and a birch tree aligned with the center of the Grand Hotel. (Although the tee has recently been cut down, the stump is still easy to find.)* Munch's view is possible from only one location, which our survey determined within a few feet. We found that the bright star in The Storm had an azimuth near 267° (slightly south of west) and an altitude near 25°. For the latitude of Asgardstrand (59° 21" north) we calculated a stellar declination near +20°. The star must therefore be Arcturus, an especially plausible candidate because it has the distinction of being the second brightest star (after Sirius) in the night sky of Norway.” Sky simulations show that the time depicted in The Storm must be during evening twilight, within a few minutes of 9:15 p.m2* The time derived from the position of the bright star is in excellent agreement with the times mentioned by Thiis and the newspaper stories. ‘We conclude that The Storm shows Arcturus in the western sky as the tempest began on the evening of August 19, 1893. Arcturus is well-known to astronomers worldwide as a prominent star during August evenings. Readers of this issue of the Griffith Observer can confirm this by consulting the sky chart showing the Evening Sky in August, on page 22, or, better yet, by observing this bril- liant star in the western sky during evening twi- light this month. Sunrise in Asgardstrand We also found a way to use the sun to deter- mine the time of year when Munch visited Asgardstrand. The point on the horizon where the sun rises varies seasonally, with the sun ris- ing farthest to the northeast at the summer solstice, farthest to the southeast at the winter solstice, and directly east at the spring and fall equinoxes. Sunrise in Asgirdstrand looks across the water to arising sun with a long glitter path reflected in the ford. We recognized, just to the left of 50 GRIFFITH OBSERVER August 2009 Edvard Munch looked a littlenorth of due east to catch the sun over Oslofjord, Astronomical analysis, on-site survey, and review ofhistorical records confirm this to be an carly September sunrise, (Edvard Munch, Sunrise in Asgardstrand, ca, 1893 oil on canvas, 65 x 89 cm private collection ©2009 The Munch Museum/ The Munch-Ellingsen Group/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York) the glitter path, the same group of trees seen in Starry Night and the roof of the Kigsterud house. The small building below and to the tight of the glitter path served as a boathouse. The right side of the painting shows the house now known as Russellgarden, with its roof almost exactly superposed on the dis- tant horizon. We found that this view is pos- sible only from the upper floor of the nearby Soelberggarden house. ‘The current owners of Soelberggirden kindly allowed us into their home. We could match Munch's view of the bend in the road only from a specific room in the upper story. In one of the most moving moments of our wip, we realized that we were standing on the same floorboards by the same window where the artist himself had looked out to watch the rising sun, more than a century before. Our modern photographs reveal several changes: The trees have grown taller, and Russellgarden has undergone some structural modifications, most notably a dormer added to the roof. Knut Christian Henriksen showed us a historical photograph of Russellgarden with no dormer, just as painted by Munch. Based on our survey we determined that the rising sun in the painting was near azi- muth 80° (that is, 10° north of east). Using the angular width of the boathouse to set the 53 August 2009 south.” Nansen quickly realized thar rhe spec- tacular object was “Venus, which we see to-day ir has rill now been beneath the horizon, It is beautiful wich its red light.” (Farthest North, 1898 cdition, Volume I, pp. 368-369.) We suggear thar the red light on che hori- for the first rim: zon in Starry Night may be a harbor light near the rown of Larkollen on rhe east side of the Osloford. 18 In the exhibition catalogues, the titles in the original languages ave Dre Sierne (Berlin, 1893), Syerner (Stockholm, 1894), Stjerner (Oslo, 1897), Abendstern (Berlin. 1902), Affenstiernen (Oslo, 1904), Naz (Copenhagen, 1906), Stlernehimmel (Copenhagen, 1908), Stjernenat (Stockholm, 1917), and Stermennacht (Berlin, 192/) 19 Prideaux (2005), pp. 209. 353. 20 Edvard Munch, The Modern Life of the Soul (2006), p. 205. 21 Morgenblader, November 6, 1904. 22 Norway in 1893 had not adopted modem, time zones or daylighr saving time. Local mean uime at Asyardstiand (longitude 10° 28' cast) was 42. minntes ahead of Universal Time. For cxample, on July 9, 1893, Jupiter rose at 23:16 UT=11 23 Ghengangeren, August 20, 1893. pam., local mean time. GRIFFITH OBSERVER Page 19 24 The bright star in The Scorn is missing from some book reproductions, for example, Eduard Munch: The Madern Life of the Soul, Museum of Modern Art, 2006, p. 113. The star may have been mistakenly identitied as a defect and removed from che digital file using Photoshop or an equivalent program. The bright star, above and to the right of the hotel, is clearly visible in che unreronched digital photographs taken by visitors to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, as can be verified at wwwflickr. com by using the search terms: moma munch storm, 25 Thiis (193'/), p. 30/. The woman in white is theretore Ragna Vilhelmine Dons, who mar- ied Jens Thiis in 1495. 26 Daghlacet, August 20, 1893, 27 Afienpesten, August 22, 1893. 28 Several authors mistakenly idencity the tree in The Storm as a poplar. Knut Christian Henriksen and several ocher Aspardserand resi- dents are certain thar it was a birch, and the cap- tion to an early photograph describes it as the birch tree (*bjorkerreet”) painted by Munch. 29 Arcturus had declination +19° 44° in 1893. 30 20:33 UT 9:15 p.m., local mean time; see note 22. 31 4:48 UL = 3:30 aan., local mean time; see note 22. BACK COVER The Space Shuttle Endeavors to Leave Disruptive weather ar Cape Canaveral, Horida, on Sunday, 30 November 2008, diverted the Space Shuttle Fndeavaur 10 a California touchdown. The Space Shuttle can land at NASA's Dryden Space Flight Research Center at Fdwards Air Force Base, near Palmdale, 65 miles northeast of Los Angeles, but itcan’treturn to space from there, The Space Shuttle must be carried piggyback on a Boeing 747 acioss the country for its next liftoff, and it left Califo mia on 10 December 2008, Griflith Observatory Astronomical Observer Anthony Cook was credentialed Tor press access and on hand Lo document the endeavor. Three weeks later, Anthony Cook reported the Endeaveni's departure for Florida to the audience assembled in the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon lor Griffith Observatory’s monthly astronomical accounting, “All Space Considered, hosted by Griffith Observatory Curator Dr. Laura Danly, (photograph John Woodlbaury, Griffith Observatory)  Page 22 GRIFFITH OBSERVER August 2009 NOZIHOH NYSHLHON ee NOZIHOH NHALSVS z fe} a ra fo} eS ra i im] t QD w = Pert u SOUTHERN HORIZON EVENING SKY IN AUGUST To use: Hold the chart over your head and orient itso that the directions on the outside of the chart Chart Times match thé directions on the ground, The chart Evening Sky shows the entire sky from horizon to horizon at the Wtdedte CBUie ~ Rink . THscion incr ieandiaguate les inact (3a eee te Pe | ES is chart is set for the latitude of Los Angeles es aan igen a north); but t-is useful through out the céntinen: oni ors tal United States and around the world at a similar Morning SI latitude. loming Sky Planet positions are plotted for the 15" of the 5:00am, RBIT, August 1 month, Sidereal times are: Evening chart, 18845" 4:00am, PDT. August 15 Morning chart, 045". S00. JRE." “ADatIsE 3   55    58 = ‘dvard Munch: mmerlige Cele) RY anata NOD ONO MOR OCm Sen eB De Cert SEPH C, HERBERT, ROBERT H, NEWTON gts ence eee a cg dominerer forgrunnen. En kystlinje bukter seg Pecos cg Cn arte atroeiaa ir Mistaeecra a ome ey oinc au et r alle stjernene som fyller himmelen. Men hvilket? Pee ey eres detaljert gjennomg ements vi at Munch hadde laget ytterligere to malerier med Pee aoe mew ete eee nam Stormen skinner en klar stjerne over Grand Hotell i Seema ee oho ganger like over horisonten, der et glitrende vannspeilet ee aes e En astronomisk daterin, Sena ere Ponies erence tree O Rew on ciel te eeaeuea st eRe tev MEM ECan “Tyskland etter tidligere minner. Munchs besok til Asgardstrand i 1893 ee) one he EM ROS ONL ee lens Thiis, som lenge var direktor ved Nasjonalgal- 59 Edvard Munch, Stormen, 1893. Olje pa lerret, 92x 131 cm. © Museum of Mocs Ar, Now “York Muneh-Bingsen-ora- 4 Astronomi 5/09 t leriet i Oslo, Thiis besakte Asgardstrand i 1893 sam- men med flere venner, inkludert Edvard Munch og poeten Helge Rode. Thiis skrev: traff jo ardstrand, Det var vennnen Edvard Munch som hadde lokket ham dit in di i august, da vi satt pi hotellveran- daen sammen, fikk jeg lyst tl 4 tegne Helge Rode Tet av hjort ner vi datoen 17. august 1893, skreve hindskrift, Dette viser at Munch definitivt besokte Asgardstrand dette fret, der han kunne la seg inspirere av den norske himmelen, Vi sé at det kunne vere gode muligheter for A identifisere himmelobjektene i Munchs malerier og ut fia dette bestemme datoene for nar de ble malt. Venus i Stjernenatt? Getty-stiftelsen sponset i sin tid en bok av kunst- historikeren Louise Lippincott (Edvard Munch: Starry Night, 1988), som skriver at Lokasjonen for bade Stjernenatt og Stormen kan ses pa dette postkortet fra omtrent 1910. Til venstre ser vi det hvite gjerdet som omslutter lindetraerne ved Kiesterud-villaen. Det norske flagget vaier fra flaggstangen som Munch malte i Stjernenatt. Neer sentrum i bildet er Grand Hotell, delvis dekket av bjorketreet som er avbildet i Stormen. Munch utsiktspunkt i Stjernenatt md ha veert ner midten ay overste etasje pa hotellet. Frasamingon # Kout Guten Henan Den rosa astjernen» pit horisonten i Stjernenatt er i virkeligheten planeten Venus. Lippincott henviser ogsé til “tilsynekomsten til ‘Venuis” i maleriet som “den rade stjermen pi horison- ten” Arne Eggum, tidligere forstekonservator ved Munch-museet, var trolig den forste som identifiserte objektet som Venus. Lippincott skriver at hun var “dypt takknemilig overfor A. Eggum som pekte pai stjernesymbolikken i Stiernenait...” Eggum forkla- rer seg slik: Den fi var Aftenstjernen ste tittelen Munch ga maleriet Sijernenatt Aftenstjernen er som kjent den neten Venuus,... (Livsfrisen fra Maleri samme som pl {il Grafik, 19 ‘enere forfattere har adoptert denne identifise- ingen. | en utstillingskatalog fra 2003 sier for eksempel Dieter Buchhard at Sijernenatt innehol- 60 der “den klare allesis(jernens og dest (ydelige lysba- nen... plancten Venus...” Disse bestaivelsene at litt forvinrende, Dat virker sum enkelle herviser til det code lysel pibiorisenter, mens andre mencr det Iyssterke objcktet eppe pa himmelen. Alle histotikemne et imidlertid enige om al Stermeruaat vise eos Manen i Stjernenatt? Lonise Lippincott gir en astranomisk ferklaring ogsi for den lyse, vertikale streken som er synlig thagen: Utsikcten i Stjernenatt ser nedover fia et vindu i Grand Holl og borlover den private, lukkede agen, De store lindetreme danner on opphayning som ses i silhuett mot nattehimmelen, Gjennom Inerne kun vi se el lyspunkl. ay en fyserule sires Méinen sem agjuler seg bak dem Hur argnnenterer for of onivelocrien er Berra! -+ Munch hadde allerede utviklet lyspunktet og sttipen som cn mite 4 representere on lyskilde og refleksen fia den; det virker plausibelt 4 identifi- sere motivel i Gelly-munseels Siernenatt sum Mire ag en refleksjon sett gjennom taxtne. Vi sate i yang. var event aslroraniske undersekelse for a sjelcke denne identifiseringen av planeter eg Minen. Reisen til Norge Gruppen var fia Texas State University reiste til Asgardsirand i august 2048 sammen med Reger Sinnott, mangedrig redaktor i bladet Si: & Tele- sea, Vi ludile Mere sparsinail fl bike Syernnaat, Ssovment og Soloppgang i Asgardsivemd: Hvor sta Mine da han malte? T hvilken retning s& han, ¢g Skrik og Pikene pa broen Torskergruppen var ved Texas State University har lenge interessert seg for hvordan Fdvard Munch avbildet himmelen. | en artikkel som vi publiserte i ldsskullel Sly & defeseaue salle vi den blodiade fumurielen | Stat sammenheng med aeresoler og andre partikler som ble kastet ut da den indonesiske vulkanen Krakatail eksploderte i august 1883. Som en del av underspkelsert reisle w Ul Norge og Iykles 4 lime eksakl hyor Murieh sto da han matt bildet. Vi kunne ogs4 verifisere at utsiktsretningen hans var mat sprvest, Cotte var den retningen ¥i forventct at vulkancn ville gi rede aften tuner, (allt belraklung av al stavel ha Krakalau Iarsl kor Ul Nowge vuileren samme dr Wi bespkle oysd Asyardstand under deri serine luren, der Muriel malle Pikeng pé brean. Vi kiatte 4 bestemme hans synsretning og kunne dermed ‘vise at dlen gule skiven han hadde malt pa himmelen, befant seq i servest. Derfor matte det vere snakk om en sommerfullmane og ikke Solen — som enkelte hadde hevdet. Dette bilder er tatt fra averste etasje i Soet- Borgedirden ag vi glenKjeaner itsynet i Suluppyang i Asgard strand, Siten Muncks Hid er trovene Blitt starre mg Raewellgite- en (tif heyre) utvider amet et pabyes. Edvard Munch, Soloppgang i Asgardstrand, crt £893, Olje pa Terret, 68.489 cn, rer sang Astronomi 5/09 & 63 Russell Doescher tar et bilde fra Soelberg- girden for d sammenlikne med uisikten i Soloppgang i Asgérdstrand. Fox dosenh Hort Forfatterne Donald W. Olson og Russell L. Doescher lunderviser i fysikk. ‘0g astronomi ved Texas State Univer- sity, Joseph C, Her bert, Robert H. New- ton og Ava G. Pope er spesielt dyktige bachelorstudenter ved Fysikkavde~ lingen som er biitt beaeret med stipend fra det som kalles: Honors Program ved universitetet. Texas State Uni- versity, San Marcos, 1X 78668, http://www tystate.e du 8 Astronomi 5/09 astronomisk ledetrad, et hint om at “stjernen” ble observert mellom solnedgang og midnatt Den klare “stjernen” i Stjernenatt Fantes det, i lopet av sommerkveldene i 1893, et seerlig lyssterkt himmelobjekt p& asthimmelen over Oslofjorden? Databeregninger ga oss svaret: planeten Jupiter, skinnende klar med en lysstyrke pi -2,4 mag., og overlegent det klareste objektet som var synlig nr man si ut fra Asgardstrands Grand Hotell, Litt over det lyssterke objektet i maleriet finner vi en seerpreget asterisme som vi tolker som Pleia- dene, Datamaskinen viser oss at stjernehopen Pleia- dene faktisk befant seg like over Jupiter idet plane~ ten steg over horisonten pa kveldene i 1893. Fordi lange og tyne glittermonstre i vannet, slik vi ser pi maleriet, bare inntreffer nar et himmelobjekt star lavt over horisonten, m4 Munch ha avbildet Jupiter ikke lenge etter oppgang. Scenen kan imidlertid ikke vaere fra forsomme- ren, For 9, jlli sto Jupiter opp etter midnatt og det virker ikke fornuftig at Munch har kalt den en “aftenstjerne”. Et postkort i Munch-museet viser at Munch hadde forlatt Asgardstrand og mottok pos- ten sin pi Nordstrand (sorast i Oslo) innen 24. sep- tember 1893, Sijernenatt mi derfor vise en scene som fant sted mellom 9, juli og 24. september, A bestemme en mer presis dato er j dette tilfellet vanskelig, fordi Jupiter hadde omtrent samme posi- sjon i forhold til bakgrunnsstjerene over mange netter. Vi oppsokte derfor verrapporter fra Meteo- rologisk institutt, Regn og overskyet viste seg 4 vere vanlig, og de fleste netter kunne derfor utelukkes. Vi fant 1o spesielt klare netter; Om natten 16,-17, august 1893 sier lokalavisen Gjengangeren at skyene raskt forsvant da Solen gikk ned og al Ud pan Natien var Himlen kia med blinkende Stern ‘Ogsa natten 23.-24, august 1895 var tilsvarende klar, ‘Vi konkluderer derfor med at Stjernenatt viser Jupiter og Pleiadene i skumringen pi kvelden, mest sannsynlig den 16, eller 23. august 1893. ‘Stormen ‘Vi inns dessuten at maleriet Stormen kanskje kunme gi oss en uavhengig metode for & fastsla nar Munch besekte Asgardstrand. En kvinme i hvitt dominerer forgrunnen i dette maleriet, mens en gruppe kvinner star litt lenger lunna, neer det samme hvite gjerdet som ble avbil- det i Sijernenatt, Et tre boyer seg i vinden forande gule lysene i vinduene i Grand Hotell, alts i samme hotell som Munch malte Sijernenatt, Foruten disse koplingene mellom de to maleriene er Stormen av interesse for astronomer fordi det viser lyssterk stjerne like nord for (til heyre for) hotellet, Maleriet er inspirert av en faktisk storm, ifelge det samme eyenvitnet som plasserte Munch i Asgirdstrand i august 1893, Memoarene fra Jens ‘Thiis nevner noen “skjonne solfylte sensommerda- ger" under besoket pa feriestedet, men forsetter med A beskrive en bra forandring i veeret: En [ummer alten. , begynte det pluiselig A suse | lutten og ruske | poplene foran hotellet... var orkit iver brut les, stod den blytunge ford ( fridende opror... fiskernes konersaintel i Klynge. Alle spei- det gionmeny tusmerkst efter fiskerbatene som Li tarp » Vile de alle klane sig: jem’ Dagen efter salle Munch tidragelsen ¥ itt berarni billede «Stormenn,,. Huset medi de oplyste-vinduet er hotellet, vor vi bodite, og den lyse kvimmeskik- kelse i Torgrimnen er min rilkommende Instr ‘Kvinnen i hvitt er alts Ragna Vilhelmine Dons, som giflet seg med Jens Thiis 1 1895, ‘Veerdata for juli, august og september opplyser om mange dager med regn, men bare ett “sterkt tor- denver” ~ en spektakuleer hendelse som inntrafT pa kvelden 19, august 1893, Oslo-avisen Daghladet kunne neste day bekrefte at stormen inntraffiskum- ringen: Et Tordenvejt med pragtfilde Lyn gik igaaraftes ved 9-Tiden over Byen, En skribent i Aftenposten var imponert over den naermest uovertrufne styrken i stormen der var ngsaa ol Regoskyl saa lef igt som ikke fie og Lyn saa typpige og sterke, som vi neppe kan erinudre at have set denn Hvilken klar stjerne si Munch da stormen begynte A nase? For 4 besvare dette ma vi vite hvilken rething han kikkket i Maleriet viser hjornet pi det hvite plankegjerdet, Kiesterud-villaen i samme retning som hjernet, og et bjorketre som star rett foran midten av Grand Hotell. Treet har nylig blitt hugget ned, men vi fant med letthet stubben, Thiis omtaler treet foran hotel- Jef som en poppel, men Knut Christian Henriksen og andre fastboende i Asgardstrand er sikre pa at det var ei bjork. Bildeteksten pa et gammelt fotografi beskriver det som “bjarketreet” som Munch malte. Mumchs synsretning er bare mulig fra én posisjon, som vi med landmalerutstyr bestemte innentor én meter. 64 ‘Vi fant at den klare stjernen i Stormen hadde en asimut naer 267° (litt sor for vest) og en altitude pa niet 25°, Ut fra Asgardstrands breddegrad (59° 21" Nord) beregnet vi en deklinasjon pa 120°, mi derfor ha vert Arcturus, en meget plausibel kan- didat siden dette er den mest lyssterke stjernen (etter Sirius) p& nattehimmelen sett fra Norge. Planetarieprogrammer viste oss at tidspunktet for Stormen mi ha vert i kveldsskumringen, innenfor noen f4 minutter fra 21,15 lokal tid. Dette bereg- nede tidspunktet sternmer utmerket med tidene som angis av Thiis og avisartiklene, ‘Vi konkluderer derfor at Stormen viser Arcturus pa vesthimmelen idet stormen braket las pit kvel- den den 19. Soloppgang i Asgardstrand Viklarte ogsé & bruke Solen for & bestennme rir pt ret Munch var i Asgirdstrand, 1 Soloppgang i Asgdrdstrand ser vi utover vant mot en oppstigende sol og et langt solglitter van- net, Like til venstre for glitteret dro vi Kjensel pri den samme gruppen av trast som vises i Stjernenatt, samt taket pi Kiesterud-villaen, Den fille bygningen under og til hayre for glitteret tjente som bathus, PA hoyre side i maleriet ser vi et hus som ni er kjent som Russellgirden, der taket flukter nesten perfekt med den fjerne horisonten, Vi fant at denne utsikten kun er mulig fra overste etasje i den naerlig- gende Soelberggirden. De naveerende eierne ay Soelberggirden slapp oss vermlig inn i sit hus. Fra ett spesifikt rom i aver- ste etasje fikk vi utsikten til 4 stemume perfekt med Munchs maleri, Dette var faktisk et av de mest rorende ayeblikk under hele vart besak, idet vi erkjente at vi sto pa de samme gulvplankene og si ut gjenniom det samme vinduet som den store kunst- neren hadde giort det, mer enn hundre ar tidligere, \Vare moderne fotografier avslarte flere endringer Treerne har vokst seg starre, og Russellgarden er delvis ombygget — serlig med utyidelsen av et sove- rom pa taket. Knut Christian Henriksen viste oss et historisk fotografi av Russell garden ufen soverom- met, akkurat slik det ble malt ay Munch. Med landmiterutstyret fant vi at Solens himrnel- vetning pa maleriet var ca. 80° (dys, 10° nord for ast). Ved 4 gd ut fra Vinkelutstrekningen pa bathu- set fant vi at Solen matte veere 2° til 4° over horison- ten. Denne solheyden st det lange og sale solglitteret i ha observert Solen nar denne posisjonen enten i Jopet av annen uke av april (hvilket er utelukket fordi Munch da var i Tyskland) eller en av de fem forste dagene i september. Nedtegnelser av vaeret viser at mange morgener hadde overskyet hinune! med regn. Det eneste tids- punktet Munch kan ha 1nalt et slikt bilde i 1893, var den 3, september kl. 05.30 lokal tid, Den tidlige historien til maleriet er imidlertid itt usikker, Laerde ved Munch-museet kunne fortelle ss at maleriet kan datere seg fra aret efter, eller til og med flere tr etter 1893. En senere dato som bide opplyller vare kray til Solens posisjon og vaeropp- lysninger, er 2, september 1895 kl. 05.31. Lokal- historiske nedtegnelser viser at doktor Wilhelm imsgaard, en venn av Munch, bodde i Soelberg- arden i 1895, Det er godt mulig at Munch besakte sin ver eller kanskje leide rom { Soelberggarden. nugust 1893. Uansett drstall ma maleriet ha blitt laget en av de fem forste dagene 1 september mined, noe som bekrefter at Minch hadde for vane a besoke Asgiird- strand pA sensommeren, Oppsummering Sijernenalt viser en scene fra kveldsskumringen med Jupiter og Pleiadene som stiger opp pa asthinn- melen, en dato i andre halvdel av august 1893, Stormen viser en scene fra kveldshimmelen i ret- ning vest, med Arcturus i nedgang like ved Grand Hotell, rundt kl. 21.13 den 19, august 1893, Soloppgang i Asgirdstrand viser utsikten mot ast, en oppstigende sol og glitter i vannet. Tidspunktet er ner 05,30 og datoen en av de ferste fem dagene i sep- ternber, De tre maleriene vi har studert denne gang, ec blitt datert uavhengig. av hver- andre ~ det ene ved 4 bruke stjerner og en planet, det andre ved 4 bruke en storm og meteorologiske nedteg- nelser, og det tredje ved & bruke Solen, Alle ire datoer faller innentfor en treukers- periode fra midten av atigust til tilig i september. Ved forst A observere naturen under sitt besok til Asgardstrand, viste Munch sit kunsineriske geni og haar fatt fram et folelsesmes- sig innhold i maleriene som sirekker seg langt ulenpsi det ord kan beskrive. A kjenne detaljene i disse himmelscenene bate oker var beundring for denne kunstnerens dyktighet nar Topografiske det gjelder 4 avbilde den norske sommerhimmielen. undersokelser under virt besok Takk i Asgardstrand. Artilskel forfatterne vil gjerne takke Lasse Jacobsen Ava Pope, Joseph ved Munch-museets bibliotek for assistansen med & Herbert, Donald gjenniomga litteratur, Tove Dahl Johansen ved Olson, Nasjonalbiblioteket i Oslo, Knut Christian Henrik- sen, Vidar Lund Iversen, Randi Bretting og Sven Ame Trolsrud i Asgardsstrand, samt Margaret Vave- tek ved Alkek-biblioteket ved Texas State University, Feta: Macinn Grr Manglende stjerne i Stormen Vare undersokelser avslarte at den lyssterke stjernen i Stormen mangler | enkelte bokreproduksjoner, som i Edvard Munch: The Modem Life of the Soul, Museum of Modem Art, 2006, side 113. Kanskje er stiernen biitt tolket som en defekt og fjernet tra den digitale bil Gefilen ved hjelp av et bildebehandiingsprogram. Stiernen mangler faktisk | flere digitale filer av dette maleriet, Selv i det nyestefirebindsverket Edvard Munch Complete Paintings mangler stiernen Den klare stjeren, over og tl heyre for hotellt, er tydelig synlig pa uretu- sjerte digitale fotografier som er tatt av besokende ved Museum of Modern Artin New York, noe du selv kan se pa http://wwwflickecom. Sok ved hjelp av sokeordene: moma munch storm, Astronomi 5109 9 65 Astrophysicist Donald Olson and colleagues at Texas State University, San Marcas, have been finding lots ta study in the paint- ings of Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. Their latest accomplish ment: identifying the celestial objects in three canvases Munch painted in AsgSedstrand, Norway. After lacating a memoir that placed Munch in Asgdrdstrand in August 1893, the researchers traveled to Norway to find the exact sites of the paintings. In Starry Night (right) scholars in the past have identified the bright star as Venus. But Venus was out of sight then, the Texans say. ‘Apphato (eft) they took from the same perspective shows ithadto be Jupiter. They also figured out, with the help of ‘19th century photos of the town, that the vertical white line im the trees, which some have identified as a hidden moon and its reflec- tion, was in facta flag pole with a ball on top. SCIENCE VOL325_ 17 JULY 2009 Published by AAAS