Editing Edvard Munch (section)

===Paris===
Munch arrived in Paris during the festivities of the [[Exposition Universelle (1889)]] and roomed with two fellow Norwegian artists. His picture ''Morning'' (1884) was displayed at the Norwegian pavilion.<ref>{{harvnb|Prideaux|2005|p=49}}</ref> He spent his mornings at Bonnat's busy studio (which included female models) and afternoons at the exhibition, galleries, and museums (where students were expected to make copies as a way of learning technique and observation).<ref>{{harvnb|Eggum|1984|p=108}}</ref> Munch recorded little enthusiasm for Bonnat's drawing lessons—"It tires and bores me—it's numbing"—but enjoyed the master's commentary during museum trips.<ref>{{harvnb|Prideaux|2005|p=110}}</ref><ref name=Eg_p61>{{harvnb|Eggum|1984|p=61}}</ref>

Munch was enthralled by the vast display of modern European art, including the works of three artists who would prove influential: [[Paul Gauguin]], [[Vincent van Gogh]], and [[Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec]]—all notable for how they used color to convey emotion.<ref name=Eg_p61/> Munch was particularly inspired by Gauguin's "reaction against realism" and his credo that "art was human work and not an imitation of Nature", a belief earlier stated by [[James Abbott McNeill Whistler|Whistler]].<ref>{{harvnb|Eggum|1984|p=9}}</ref> As one of his Berlin friends said later of Munch, "he need not make his way to Tahiti to see and experience the primitive in human nature. He carries his own Tahiti within him."<ref>{{harvnb|Eggum|1984|p=12}}</ref> Influenced by Gauguin, as well as the etchings of German artist [[Max Klinger]], Munch experimented with prints as a medium to create graphic versions of his works. In 1896 he created his first woodcuts—a medium that proved ideal to Munch's symbolic imagery.<ref name="TaurisBlog" /> Together with his contemporary [[Nikolai Astrup]], Munch is considered an innovator of the [[woodcut]] medium in Norway.<ref name="KODE" />

In December 1889 his father died, leaving Munch's family destitute. He returned home and arranged a large loan from a wealthy Norwegian collector when wealthy relatives failed to help, and assumed financial responsibility for his family from then on.<ref>{{harvnb|Prideaux|2005|p=114}}</ref> Christian's death depressed him and he was plagued by suicidal thoughts: "I live with the dead—my mother, my sister, my grandfather, my father...Kill yourself and then it's over. Why live?"<ref>{{harvnb|Prideaux|2005|p=115}}</ref> Munch's paintings of the following year included sketchy tavern scenes and a series of bright cityscapes in which he experimented with the [[Pointillism|pointillist]] style of [[Georges Seurat]].<ref>{{harvnb|Eggum|1984|pp=64–68}}</ref>