Edvard Munch (1863-1944) was the first Norwegian visual artist to earn an international reputation during the explosion of creativity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Productive for more than six decades, Munch was an insightful portraitist and landscape painter, as well as an exacting explorer of human passions, including universal themes of love, death, and spiritual longing. This anthology contains nine essays written by art historians from Norway, Germany, Switzerland and the USA. Their nationalities are a reflection of where interest in Munch’s art is greatest and research on him most actively pursued. The authors discuss across-the-board questions related to idealism, realism and modernism. The body, sexuality, and gender and society are further topics discussed in connection with specific works and their contexts. The authors vary in age, represent differing scholarly traditions, and choose different methods. Nevertheless there are common factors. They are more critical of their sources than their predecessors, and interpretations of works are increasingly based on information that can be documented. A great diversity of theory now supplements the traditional biographical approach.