Charles Marion Russell's The Custer Fight (1903). Note the range of tones, fading toward the edges.

Lithography (from Greek λίθος - lithos, 'stone' + γράφειν - graphein, 'to write') is a method for printing using a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface. Invented in 1796 by Bavarian author Alois Senefelder as a cheap method of publishing theatrical works,^[1][2] lithography can be used to print text or artwork onto paper or other suitable material.^[3]

Lithography originally used an image drawn (etched) into a coating of wax or an oily substance applied to a plate of lithographic stone as the medium to transfer ink to a blank paper sheet, and so produce a printed page. In modern lithography, the image is made of a polymer coating applied to a flexible aluminum plate. To print an image lithographically, the flat surface of the stone plate is roughened slightly—etched—and divided into hydrophilic regions that accept a film of water, and thereby repel the greasy ink; and hydrophobic regions that repel water and accept ink because the surface tension is greater on the greasy image area, which remains dry. The image can be printed directly from the stone plate (the orientation of the image is reversed), or it can be offset, by transferring the image onto a flexible sheet (rubber) for printing and publication.

As a printing technology, lithography is different from intaglio printing (gravure), wherein a plate is either engraved, etched, or stippled to score cavities to contain the printing ink; and woodblock printing, and letterpress printing, wherein ink is applied to the raised surfaces of letters or images. Most types of books of high-volume text are printed with offset lithography, the most common form of printing technology. Etymologically, the word lithography also denotes photolithography, a microfabrication technique used to make integrated circuits and microelectromechanical systems, as such are more technologically akin to etching than lithography, printing from a stone plate.

The principle of lithography[link]

Lithography uses simple chemical processes to create an image. For instance, the positive part of an image is a water-repelling ("hydrophobic") substance, while the negative image would be water-retaining ("hydrophilic"). Thus, when the plate is introduced to a compatible printing ink and water mixture, the ink will adhere to the positive image and the water will clean the negative image. This allows a flat print plate to be used, enabling much longer and more detailed print runs than the older physical methods of printing (e.g., intaglio printing, letterpress printing).

Lithography was invented by Alois Senefelder in Bohemia in 1796. In the early days of lithography, a smooth piece of limestone was used (hence the name "lithography": "lithos" (λιθος) is the ancient Greek word for stone). After the oil-based image was put on the surface, a solution of gum arabic in water was applied, the gum sticking only to the non-oily surface. During printing, water adhered to the gum arabic surfaces and avoided the oily parts, while the oily ink used for printing did the opposite.

Lithography on limestone[link]

Lithography stone and mirror-image print of a map of Munich

Lithography works because of the mutual repulsion of oil and water. The image is drawn on the surface of the print plate with a fat or oil-based medium (hydrophobic) such as a wax crayon, which may be pigmented to make the drawing visible. A wide range of oil-based media is available, but the durability of the image on the stone depends on the lipid content of the material being used, and its ability to withstand water and acid. After the drawing of the image, an aqueous solution of gum arabic, weakly acidified with nitric acid HNO₃ is applied to the stone. The function of this solution is to create a hydrophilic layer of calcium nitrate salt, Ca(NO₃)₂, and gum arabic on all non-image surfaces. The gum solution penetrates into the pores of the stone, completely surrounding the original image with a hydrophilic layer that will not accept the printing ink. Using lithographic turpentine, the printer then removes any excess of the greasy drawing material, but a hydrophobic molecular film of it remains tightly bonded to the surface of the stone, rejecting the gum arabic and water, but ready to accept the oily ink.^[4]

When printing, the stone is kept wet with water. Naturally the water is attracted to the layer of gum and salt created by the acid wash. Printing ink based on drying oils such as linseed oil and varnish loaded with pigment is then rolled over the surface. The water repels the greasy ink but the hydrophobic areas left by the original drawing material accept it. When the hydrophobic image is loaded with ink, the stone and paper are run through a press which applies even pressure over the surface, transferring the ink to the paper and off the stone.

Senefelder had experimented during the early 19th century with multicolor lithography; in his 1819 book, he predicted that the process would eventually be perfected and used to reproduce paintings.^[1] Multi-color printing was introduced by a new process developed by Godefroy Engelmann (France) in 1837 known as chromolithography.^[1] A separate stone was used for each color, and a print went through the press separately for each stone. The main challenge was to keep the images aligned (in register). This method lent itself to images consisting of large areas of flat color, and resulted in the characteristic poster designs of this period.

"Lithography, or printing from soft stone, largely took the place of engraving in the production of English commercial maps after about 1852. It was a quick, cheap process and had been used to print British army maps during the Peninsula War. Most of the commercial maps of the second half of the 19th century were lithographed and unattractive, though accurate enough."^[5]

The modern lithographic process[link]

A 1902 lithograph map (original size 33×24 cm)

High-volume lithography is used presently to produce posters, maps, books, newspapers, and packaging—just about any smooth, mass-produced item with print and graphics on it. Most books, indeed all types of high-volume text, are now printed using offset lithography.

For offset lithography, which depends on photographic processes, flexible aluminum, polyester, mylar or paper printing plates are used instead of stone tablets. Modern printing plates have a brushed or roughened texture and are covered with a photosensitive emulsion. A photographic negative of the desired image is placed in contact with the emulsion and the plate is exposed to ultraviolet light. After development, the emulsion shows a reverse of the negative image, which is thus a duplicate of the original (positive) image. The image on the plate emulsion can also be created by direct laser imaging in a CTP (Computer-To-Plate) device known as a platesetter. The positive image is the emulsion that remains after imaging. Non-image portions of the emulsion have traditionally been removed by a chemical process, though in recent times plates have come available which do not require such processing.

Lithography press for printing maps in Munich

The plate is affixed to a cylinder on a printing press. Dampening rollers apply water, which covers the blank portions of the plate but is repelled by the emulsion of the image area. Hydrophobic ink, which is repelled by the water and only adheres to the emulsion of the image area, is then applied by the inking rollers.

If this image were transferred directly to paper, it would create a mirror-type image and the paper would become too wet. Instead, the plate rolls against a cylinder covered with a rubber blanket, which squeezes away the water, picks up the ink and transfers it to the paper with uniform pressure. The paper passes between the blanket cylinder and a counter-pressure or impression cylinder and the image is transferred to the paper. Because the image is first transferred, or offset to the rubber blanket cylinder, this reproduction method is known as offset lithography or offset printing.^[6]

Many innovations and technical refinements have been made in printing processes and presses over the years, including the development of presses with multiple units (each containing one printing plate) that can print multi-color images in one pass on both sides of the sheet, and presses that accommodate continuous rolls (webs) of paper, known as web presses. Another innovation was the continuous dampening system first introduced by Dahlgren instead of the old method which is still used on older presses (conventional dampening), which are rollers covered with molleton (cloth) which absorbs the water. This increased control of the water flow to the plate and allowed for better ink and water balance. Current dampening systems include a "delta effect or vario " which slows the roller in contact with the plate, thus creating a sweeping movement over the ink image to clean impurities known as "hickies".

The process of lithography printing is seen here. This simplified version of a lithographic printing press gives you an idea of how the printing process works. This press is also called an ink pyramid due to the fact that the ink is transferred through several layers of rollers with different purposes. The lithographic printing presses are commonly used in newspaper production where fast rolling and jumping rolls are a famous part of the pressing scene in every newspaper production movie.

The advent of desktop publishing made it possible for type and images to be modified easily on personal computers for eventual printing by desktop or commercial presses. The development of digital imagesetters enabled print shops to produce negatives for platemaking directly from digital input, skipping the intermediate step of photographing an actual page layout. The development of the digital platesetter during the late 20th century eliminated film negatives altogether by exposing printing plates directly from digital input, a process known as computer to plate printing.

Microlithography and nanolithography[link]

Microlithography and nanolithography refer specifically to lithographic patterning methods capable of structuring material on a fine scale. Typically, features smaller than 10 micrometers are considered microlithographic, and features smaller than 100 nanometers are considered nanolithographic. Photolithography is one of these methods, often applied to semiconductor manufacturing of microchips. Photolithography is also commonly used for fabricating Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices. Photolithography generally uses a pre-fabricated photomask or reticle as a master from which the final pattern is derived.

Although photolithographic technology is the most commercially advanced form of nanolithography, other techniques are also used. Some, for example electron beam lithography, are capable of much greater patterning resolution (sometimes as small as a few nanometers). Electron beam lithography is also important commercially, primarily for its use in the manufacture of photomasks. Electron beam lithography as it is usually practiced is a form of maskless lithography, in that a mask is not required to generate the final pattern. Instead, the final pattern is created directly from a digital representation on a computer, by controlling an electron beam as it scans across a resist-coated substrate. Electron beam lithography has the disadvantage of being much slower than photolithography.

In addition to these commercially well-established techniques, a large number of promising microlithographic and nanolithographic technologies exist or are being developed, including nanoimprint lithography, interference lithography, X-ray lithography, extreme ultraviolet lithography, magnetolithography and scanning probe lithography. Some of these new techniques have been used successfully for small-scale commercial and important research applications. Surface-charge lithography, in fact Plasma desorption mass spectrometry can be directly patterned on polar dielectric crystals via pyroelectric effect,^[7] Diffraction lithography.^[8]

Lithography as an artistic medium[link]

Smiling Spider by Odilon Redon, 1891

During the first years of the 19th century, lithography had only a limited effect on printmaking, mainly because technical difficulties remained to be overcome. Germany was the main center of production in this period. Godefroy Engelmann, who moved his press from Mulhouse to Paris in 1816, largely succeeded in resolving the technical problems, and during the 1820s lithography was adopted by artists such as Delacroix and Géricault. London also became a center, and some of Géricault's prints were in fact produced there. Goya in Bordeaux produced his last series of prints by lithography—The Bulls of Bordeaux of 1828. By the mid-century the initial enthusiasm had somewhat diminished in both countries, although the use of lithography was increasingly favored for commercial applications, which included the great prints of Daumier, published in newspapers. Rodolphe Bresdin and Jean-François Millet also continued to practice the medium in France, and Adolf Menzel in Germany. In 1862 the publisher Cadart tried to initiate a portfolio of lithographs by various artists which was not successful, but included several superb prints by Manet. The revival began during the 1870s, especially in France with artists such as Odilon Redon, Henri Fantin-Latour and Degas producing much of their work in this manner. The need for strictly limited editions to maintain the price had now been realized, and the medium become more accepted.

In the 1890s color lithography became greatly popular with French artists, Toulouse-Lautrec most notably of all, and by 1900 the medium in both color and monotone was an accepted part of printmaking, although France and the US have used it more than other countries.

During the 20th century, a group of celebrated artists, including Calder, Chagall, Dufy, Léger, Matisse, Miró, and Picasso, rediscovered the largely undeveloped art form of lithography thanks to the Mourlot Studios, also known as Atelier Mourlot, a Parisian printshop founded in 1852 by the Mourlot family. The Atelier Mourlot originally specialized in the printing of wallpaper, but was transformed when the founder's grandson, Fernand Mourlot, invited a number of 20th-century artists to explore the complexities of fine art printing. Fernand encouraged the painters to work directly on lithographic stones in order to create original artworks that could then be executed under the direction of master printers in small editions. The combination of modern artist and master printer resulted in unique and visually striking lithographs, which were used as posters to promote the artists' work.^[9][10]

Grant Wood, George Bellows, Alphonse Mucha, Max Kahn, Pablo Picasso, Eleanor Coen, Jasper Johns, David Hockney, Susan Dorothea White and Robert Rauschenberg are a few of the artists who have produced most of their prints in the medium. M. C. Escher is considered a master of lithography, and many of his prints were created using this process. More than other printmaking techniques, printmakers in lithography still largely depend on access to a good printer, and the development of the medium has been greatly influenced by when and where these have been established. See the List of Printmakers for more practitioners.

As a special form of lithography, the Serilith process is sometimes used. Serilith are mixed media original prints created in a process in which an artist uses the lithograph and serigraph process. The separations for both processes are hand-drawn by the artist. The serilith technique is used primarily to create fine art limited print editions.^[11]

Gallery[link]

• Old Man with his Head in his Hands (At Eternity's Gate).jpg

  At Eternity's Gate, 1882 lithograph by Vincent van Gogh.

• 

  Washington's Residence, High Street, Philadelphia, 1830 lithograph by William L. Breton.

• 

  An 1836 lithograph of Mexican women making tortillas by Carl Nebel.

• 

  An example of a 19th-century lithograph depicting royal Afghan soldiers of the Durrani Empire in Afghanistan.

• 

  Sea anemones from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur (Artforms of Nature), 1904.

• 

  In the Park, Light - George Bellows 1916

• GeorgeLeybourne2.jpg

  Alfred Concanen's 1867 design for Champagne Charlie

See also[link]

• Block printing
• Color printing
• Etching
• Flexography
• History of graphic design
• Letterpress printing
• Lineography
• Photochrom
• Rotogravure
• Seriolithograph
• Stereolithography
• Typography
• Lithography using MeV ions - Proton beam writing
• Theodore Regensteiner inventor of the four-color lithographic press

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lithography

• Twyman, Michael. Early Lithographed Books. Pinner, Middlesex: Private Libraries Association, 1990
• Lithography and other printmaking definitions
• Museum of Modern Art information on printing techniques and examples of prints
• The Invention of Lithography, Aloys Senefelder, (Eng. trans. 1911)(a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVu and layered PDF format)
• Theo De Smedt's website, author of "What's lithography"
• Extensive information on Honoré Daumier and his life and work, including his entire output of lithographs
• Digital work catalog to 4000 lithographs and 1000 wood engravings
• Detailed examination of the processes involved in the creation of a typical scholarly lithographic illustration in the 19th century
• Nederlands Steendrukmuseum
• Delacroix's Faust lithographs at the Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University
• A brief historic overview of Lithography. University of Delaware Library. Includes citations for 19th century books using early lithographic illustrations.
• Philadelphia on Stone: The First Fifty Years of Commercial Lithography in Philadelphia. Library Company of Philadelphia. Provides an historic overview of the commercial trade in Philadelphia and links to a biographical dictionary of over 500 Philadelphia lithographers and catalog of more than 1300 lithographs documenting Philadelphia.
• Swiss Cities

Edvard Munch
Munch in 1921
Born	(1863-12-12)12 December 1863 Ådalsbruk in Løten, Norway
Died	23 January 1944(1944-01-23) (aged 80) Oslo, Norway
Nationality	Norwegian
Field	Painting
Movement	Expressionism, Symbolism
Works	The Scream

Edvard Munch (Norwegian pronunciation: [ˈmʉŋk], 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944)^[1] was a Norwegian painter and printmaker whose intensely evocative treatment of psychological themes built upon some of the main tenets of late 19th-century Symbolism and greatly influenced German Expressionism in the early 20th century. One of his most well-known works is The Scream of 1893.

Childhood[link]

Edvard Munch was born in a rustic farmhouse in the village of Ådalsbruk in Løten, to Christian Munch, the son of a priest. Christian was a doctor and medical officer who married Laura Catherine Bjølstad, a woman half his age, in 1861. Edvard had an elder sister, Johanne Sophie (born 1862), and three younger siblings: Peter Andreas (born 1865), Laura Catherine (born 1867), and Inger Marie (born 1868). Both Sophie and Edvard appear to have inherited their artistic talent from their mother. Edvard Munch was related to painter Jacob Munch (1776–1839) and historian Peter Andreas Munch (1810–1863).^[2]

The family moved to Christiania (now Oslo) in 1864 when Christian Munch was appointed medical officer at Akershus Fortress. Edvard's mother died of tuberculosis in 1868, as did Munch's favorite sister Johanne Sophie in 1877.^[3] After their mother's death, the Munch siblings were raised by their father and by their aunt Karen. Often ill for much of the winters and kept out of school, Edvard would draw to keep himself occupied, and received tutoring from his school mates and his aunt. Christian Munch also instructed his son in history and literature, and entertained the children with vivid ghost-stories and tales of Edgar Allan Poe.^[4]

Christian's positive behavior toward his children was overshadowed by his morbid pietism. Munch wrote, "My father was temperamentally nervous and obsessively religious—to the point of psychoneurosis. From him I inherited the seeds of madness. The angels of fear, sorrow, and death stood by my side since the day I was born."^[5] Christian reprimanded his children by telling them that their mother was looking down from heaven and grieving over their misbehavior. The oppressive religious milieu, plus Edvard's poor health and the vivid ghost stories, helped inspire macabre visions and nightmares in Edvard, who felt death constantly advancing on him.^[6] One of Munch's younger sisters was diagnosed with mental illness at an early age. Of the five siblings, only Andreas married, but he died a few months after the wedding. Munch would later write, "I inherited two of mankind's most frightful enemies—the heritage of consumption and insanity."^[7]

Christian Munch's military pay was very low, and his attempts at developing a private side practice failed, keeping his family in perennial poverty.^[3] They moved frequently from one sordid flat to another. Munch's early drawings and watercolors depicted these interiors, and the individual objects, such as medicine bottles and drawing implements, plus some landscapes. By his teens, art dominated Munch's interests.^[8] At thirteen, Munch had his first exposure to other artists at the newly formed Art Association, where he admired the work of the Norwegian landscape school. He returned to copy the paintings, and soon he began to paint in oils.^[9]

Studies and influences[link]

In 1879, Munch enrolled in a technical college to study engineering, where he excelled in physics, chemistry, and math. He learned scaled and perspective drawing, but frequent illnesses interrupted his studies.^[10] The following year, much to his father's disappointment, Munch left the college determined to become a painter. His father viewed art as an "unholy trade", and his neighbors reacted bitterly and sent him anonymous letters.^[11] In contrast to his father's rabid pietism, Munch adopted an undogmatic stance toward art, writing in his diary his simple goal: "in my art I attempt to explain life and its meaning to myself."^[10]

In 1881, Munch enrolled at the Royal School of Art and Design of Christiania, one of whose founders was his distant relative Jacob Munch. His teachers were sculptor Julius Middelthun and naturalistic painter Christian Krohg.^[12] That year, Munch demonstrated his quick absorption of his figure training at the Academy in his first portraits, including one of his father and his first self-portrait. In 1883, Munch took part in his first public exhibition and shared a studio with other students.^[13] His full-length portrait of Karl Jensen-Hjell, a notorious bohemian-about-town, earned a critic's dismissive response: "It is impressionism carried to the extreme. It is a travesty of art."^[14] Munch's nude paintings from this period survive only in sketches, except for Standing Nude (1887), perhaps confiscated by his father.^[15]

During these early years in his career, Munch experimented with many styles, including Naturalism and Impressionism. Some early works are reminiscent of Manet. Many of these attempts brought him unfavorable criticism from the press and garnered him constant rebukes by his father, who nonetheless provided him with small sums for living expenses.^[14] At one point, however, Munch's father, perhaps swayed by the negative opinion of Munch's cousin Edvard Diriks (an established, traditional painter), destroyed at least one painting (likely a nude) and refused to advance any more money for art supplies.^[16]

Munch also received his father's ire for his relationship with Hans Jæger, the local nihilist who lived by the code "a passion to destroy is also a creative passion" and who advocated suicide as the ultimate way to freedom.^[17] Munch came under his malevolent, anti-establishment spell. "My ideas developed under the influence of the bohemians or rather under Hans Jæger. Many people have mistakenly claimed that my ideas were formed under the influence of Strindberg and the Germans…but that is wrong. They had already been formed by then."^[18] At that time, contrary to many of the other bohemians, Munch was still respectful of women, as well as reserved and well-mannered, but he began to give in to the binge drinking and brawling of his circle. He was unsettled by the sexual revolution going on at the time and by the independent women around him. He later turned cynical concerning sexual matters, expressed not only in his behavior and his art, but in his writings as well, an example being a long poem called The City of Free Love.^[19] Still dependent on his family for many of his meals, Munch's relationship with his father remained tense over concerns about his bohemian life.

After numerous experiments, Munch concluded that the Impressionist idiom did not allow sufficient expression. He found it superficial and too akin to scientific experimentation. He felt a need to go deeper and explore situations brimming with emotional content and expressive energy. Under Jæger's commandment that Munch should "write his life", meaning that Munch should explore his own emotional and psychological state, Munch began a period of reflection and self-examination, recording his thoughts in his "soul's diary".^[20] This deeper perspective helped move him to a new view of his art. He wrote that his painting The Sick Child (1886), based on his sister's death, was his first "soul painting", his first break from Impressionism. The painting received a negative response from critics and from his family, and caused another "violent outburst of moral indignation" from the community.^[21] Only his friend Christian Krohg defended him:

He paints, or rather regards, things in a way that is different from that of other artists. He sees only the essential, and that, naturally, is all he paints. For this reason Munch's pictures are as a rule "not complete", as people are so delighted to discover for themselves. Oh, yes, they are complete. His complete handiwork. Art is complete once the artist has really said everything that was on his mind, and this is precisely the advantage Munch has over painters of the other generation, that he really knows how to show us what he has felt, and what has gripped him, and to this he subordinates everything else.^[22]

Munch continued to employ a variety of brushstroke technique and color palettes throughout the 1880s and early 1890s, as he struggled to define his style.^[23] His idiom continued to veer between naturalistic, as seen in Portrait of Hans Jæger, and impressionistic, as in Rue Lafayette. His Inger On the Beach (1889), which caused another storm of confusion and controversy, hints at the simplified forms, heavy outlines, sharp contrasts, and emotional content of his mature style to come.^[24] He began to carefully calculate his compositions to create tension and emotion. While stylistically influenced by the Post-Impressionists, what evolved was a subject matter which was symbolist in content, depicting a state of mind rather than an external reality. In 1889, Munch presented his first one-man show of nearly all his works to date. The recognition it received led to a two-year state scholarship to study in Paris under French painter Léon Bonnat.^[25]

Paris[link]

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.^[26] He spent his mornings at Bonnat's busy studio (which included live female models) and afternoons at the exhibition, galleries, and museums (where students were to make copies).^[27] 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.^[28][29]

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.^[29] 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 Whistler.^[30] As one of his Berlin friends stated later about 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."^[31]

That December, 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.^[32] 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?"^[33] Munch's paintings of the following year included sketchy tavern scenes and a series of bright cityscapes in which he experimented with the pointillist style of Georges Seurat.^[34]

Berlin[link]

By 1892, Munch formulated his characteristic, and original, Synthetist aesthetic, as seen in Melancholy, in which color is the symbol-laden element. In 1892, Adelsteen Normann, on behalf of the Union of Berlin Artists, invited Munch to exhibit at its November exhibition,^[35] the society's first one-man exhibition. However, his paintings evoked bitter controversy (dubbed "The Munch Affair") and after one week the exhibition closed.^[35] Munch was pleased with the "great commotion", and wrote in a letter: "Never have I had such an amusing time—it's incredible that something as innocent as painting should have created such a stir."^[36]

In Berlin, Munch involved himself in an international circle of writers, artists and critics, including the Swedish dramatist and leading intellectual August Strindberg, whom he painted in 1892. During his four years in Berlin, Munch sketched out most of the ideas that would comprise his major work, The Frieze of Life, first designed for book illustration but later expressed in paintings.^[37] He sold little, but made some income from charging entrance fees to view his controversial paintings.^[38] Already, Munch was showing a reluctance to part with his paintings, which he termed his "children".

His other paintings, including casino scenes, show a simplification of form and detail which marked his early mature style.^[39] Munch also began to favor a shallow pictorial space and a minimal backdrop for his frontal figures. Since poses were chosen to produce the most convincing images of states of mind and psychological conditions, as in Ashes, the figures impart a monumental, static quality. Munch's figures appear to play roles on a theatre stage (Death in the Sick-Room), whose pantomime of fixed postures signify various emotions; since each character embodies a single psychological dimension, as in The Scream, Munch's men and women now appear more symbolic than realistic. He wrote, "No longer should interiors be painted, people reading and women knitting: there would be living people, breathing and feeling, suffering and loving."^[40]

[edit] The Scream

Painted in 1893, The Scream is Munch's most famous work and one of the most recognizable paintings in all art. It has been widely interpreted as representing the universal anxiety of modern man.^[40] Painted with broad bands of garish color and highly simplified forms, and employing a high viewpoint, the agonized figure is reduced to a garbed skull in the throes of an emotional crisis. With this painting, Munch met his stated goal of "the study of the soul, that is to say the study of my own self".^[41] Munch wrote of how the painting came to be: "I was walking down the road with two friends when the sun set; suddenly, the sky turned as red as blood. I stopped and leaned against the fence, feeling unspeakably tired. Tongues of fire and blood stretched over the bluish black fjord. My friends went on walking, while I lagged behind, shivering with fear. Then I heard the enormous, infinite scream of nature."^[42] He later described the personal anguish behind the painting, "for several years I was almost mad… You know my picture, 'The Scream?' I was stretched to the limit—nature was screaming in my blood… After that I gave up hope ever of being able to love again."^[43]

In summing up the painting's impact, author Martha Tedeschi has stated: "Whistler's Mother, Wood's American Gothic, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and Edvard Munch's The Scream have all achieved something that most paintings—regardless of their art historical importance, beauty, or monetary value—have not: they communicate a specific meaning almost immediately to almost every viewer. These few works have successfully made the transition from the elite realm of the museum visitor to the enormous venue of popular culture."^[44]

The Scream has four versions: three paintings (1893, 1895 and 1910), and one lithograph (1895). The 1910 painting was stolen in 2004, and recovered in 2006 with limited damage. The 1895 painting sold at auction on 2 May 2012 for US$119,922,500, including commission.^[45]

[edit] Frieze of Life – A Poem about Life, Love and Death

In December 1893, Unter den Linden in Berlin held an exhibition of Munch's work, showing, among other pieces, six paintings entitled Study for a Series: Love. This began a cycle he later called the Frieze of Life – A Poem about Life, Love and Death. "Frieze of Life" motifs such as The Storm and Moonlight are steeped in atmosphere. Other motifs illuminate the nocturnal side of love, such as Rose and Amelie and Vampire. In Death in the Sickroom, the subject is the death of his sister Sophie, which he re-did in many future variations. The dramatic focus of the painting, portraying his entire family, is dispersed in a series of separate and disconnected figures of sorrow. In 1894, he enlarged the spectrum of motifs by adding Anxiety, Ashes, Madonna and Women in Three Stages (from innocence to old age).^[46]

Around the turn of the century, Munch worked to finish the "Frieze". He painted a number of pictures, several of them in larger format and to some extent featuring the Art Nouveau aesthetics of the time. He made a wooden frame with carved reliefs for the large painting Metabolism (1898), initially called Adam and Eve. This work reveals Munch's preoccupation with the "fall of man" myth and his pessimistic philosophy of love. Motifs such as The Empty Cross and Golgotha (both c. 1900) reflect a metaphysical orientation, and also echo Munch's pietistic upbringing. The entire Frieze showed for the first time at the secessionist exhibition in Berlin in 1902.^[47]

"The Frieze of Life" themes recur throughout Munch's work but find their strongest outpouring in the mid-1890s. In sketches, paintings, pastels and prints, he taps the depths of his feelings to examine his major motifs: the stages of life, the femme fatale, the hopelessness of love, anxiety, infidelity, jealousy, sexual humiliation, and separation in life and death.^[48] These themes find expression in paintings such as The Sick Child (1885), Love and Pain (1893–94), Ashes (1894), and The Bridge. The latter shows limp figures with featureless or hidden faces, over which loom the threatening shapes of heavy trees and brooding houses. Munch portrayed women either as frail, innocent sufferers (see Puberty and Love and Pain) or as the cause of great longing, jealousy and despair (see Separation, Jealousy and Ashes).

Munch often uses shadows and rings of color around his figures to emphasize an aura of fear, menace, anxiety, or sexual intensity.^[49] These paintings have been interpreted as reflections of the artist's sexual anxieties, though it could also be argued that they are a better representation of his turbulent relationship with love itself and his general pessimism regarding human existence.^[50] Many of these sketches and paintings were done in several versions, such as Madonna, Hands and Puberty, and also transcribed as wood-block prints and lithographs. Munch hated to part with his paintings because he thought of his work as a single body of expression. So to capitalize on his production and make some income, he turned to graphic arts to reproduce many of his most famous paintings, including those in this series.^[51] Munch admitted to the personal goals of his work but he also offered his art to a wider purpose, "My art is really a voluntary confession and an attempt to explain to myself my relationship with life—it is, therefore, actually a sort of egoism, but I am constantly hoping that through this I can help others achieve clarity."^[52]

Still attracting strongly negative reactions, in the 1890s Munch did begin to receive some understanding of his artistic goals, as one critic wrote, "With ruthless contempt for form, clarity, elegance, wholeness, and realism, he paints with intuitive strength of talent the most subtle visions of the soul."^[53] One of his great supporters in Berlin was Walther Rathenau, later the German foreign minister, who greatly contributed to his success.

Paris and Christiania[link]

In 1896, Munch moved to Paris, where he focused on graphic representations of his "Frieze of Life" themes. He further developed his woodcut and lithographic technique. Munch's Self-Portrait With Skeleton Arm (1895) is done with an etching needle-and-ink method also used by Paul Klee.^[54] Munch also produced multi-colored versions of "The Sick Child" which sold well, as well as several nudes and multiple versions of Kiss (1892)^[54] Many of the Parisian critics still considered Munch's work "violent and brutal" but his exhibitions received serious attention and good attendance.^[55] His financial situation improved considerably and in 1897, Munch bought himself a summer house, a small fisherman's cabin built in the late 18th century, in the small town of Åsgårdstrand in Norway. He dubbed this home the "Happy House" and returned here almost every summer for the next 20 years.^[56]

Munch returned to Christiania in 1897 where he also received grudging acceptance, where one critic wrote, "A fair number of these pictures have been exhibited before. In my opinion these improve on acquaintance."^[56] In 1899, at the age of thirty-four, Munch began an intimate relationship with Tulla Larsen, a "liberated" upper-class woman. They traveled to Italy together and upon returning, Munch began another fertile period in his art, which included landscapes and his final painting in "The Frieze of Life" series, The Dance of Life (1899).^[57] Larsen was eager for marriage, and Munch begged off. His drinking and poor health reinforced his fears, as he wrote in the third person, "Ever since he was a child he had hated marriage. His sick and nervous home had given him the feeling that he had no right to get married."^[58] Munch almost gave in to Tulla, but fled from her in 1900, also turning away from her considerable fortune, and moved to Berlin.^[58] His Girls on the Jetty, created in eighteen different versions, demonstrated the theme of feminine youth without negative connotations.^[51] In 1902, he displayed his works thematically at the hall of the Berlin Succession, producing "a symphonic effect—it made a great stir—a lot of antagonism—and a lot of approval."^[59] The Berlin critics were beginning to appreciate Munch's work even though the public still found his work alien and strange.

The good press coverage gained Munch the attention of influential patrons Albert Kollman and Max Linde. He described the turn of events in his diary, "After twenty years of struggle and misery forces of good finally come to my aid in Germany—and a bright door opens up for me."^[60] However, despite this positive change, Munch's self-destructive and erratic behavior involved him first with a violent quarrel with another artist, then with an accidental shooting in the presence of Tulla Larsen, who had returned for a brief reconciliation, which injured two of his fingers. She finally left him and married a younger colleague of Munch. Munch took this as a betrayal, and he dwelled on the humiliation for some time to come, channeling some of the bitterness into new paintings.^[61] His paintings Still Life (The Murderess) and The Death of Marat I, done in 1906-7, clearly reference the shooting incident and the emotional after effects.^[62]

In 1903-4, Munch exhibited in Paris where the coming Fauvists, famous for their boldly false colors, likely saw his works and might have found inspiration in them. When the Fauves held their own exhibit in 1906, Munch was invited and displayed his works with theirs.^[63] After studying the sculpture of Rodin, Munch may have experimented with plasticine as an aid to design, but he produced little sculpture.^[64] During this time, Munch received many commissions for portraits and prints which improved his usually precarious financial condition.^[65] After an earlier period of landscapes, in 1907 he turned his attention again to human figures and situations.^[66]

Breakdown and recovery[link]

However, in the autumn of 1908, Munch's anxiety, compounded by excessive drinking and brawling, had become acute. As he wrote later, "My condition was verging on madness—it was touch and go."^[67] Subject to hallucinations and feelings of persecution, he entered the clinic of Dr. Daniel Jacobson. The therapy Munch received for the next eight months included diet and "electrification" (a treatment then fashionable for nervous conditions, not to be confused with electroconvulsive therapy).^[68] Munch's stay in hospital stabilized his personality, and after returning to Norway in 1909, his work became more colorful and less pessimistic. His portrait of Professor Jacobson, done in 1909, is one of Munch's best.^[67] Further brightening his mood, the general public of Christiania finally warmed to his work, and museums began to purchase his paintings. He was made a Knight of the Royal Order of St. Olav "for services in art".^[69] His first American exhibit was in 1912 in New York.^[70]

As part of his recovery, Dr. Jacobson advised Munch to only socialize with good friends and avoid public drinking. Munch followed this advice and in the process produced several full-length portraits of high quality of friends and patrons—honest portrayals devoid of flattery.^[71] He also created landscapes and scenes of people at work and play, using a new optimistic style—broad, loose brushstrokes of vibrant color with frequent use of white space and rare use of black—with only occasional references to his morbid themes. With more income, Munch was able to buy several properties giving him new vistas for his art and he was finally able to provide for his family.^[72]

Munch in 1933

The outbreak of World War I found Munch with divided loyalties, as he stated, "All my friends are German but it is France that I love."^[73] In the 1930s, his German patrons, many Jewish, lost their fortunes and some their lives during the rise of the Nazi movement.^[74] Munch found Norwegian printers to substitute for the Germans who had been printing his graphic work.^[75] Given his poor health history, during 1918 Munch felt himself lucky to have survived a bout of the Spanish Flu, the worldwide pandemic of that year.^[76]

Later years[link]

Munch spent most of his last two decades in solitude at his nearly self-sufficient estate in Ekely, at Skøyen, Oslo.^[77] Many of his late paintings celebrate farm life, including many where he used his work horse "Rousseau" as a model.^[78] Without any effort, Munch had a steady stream of female models, some of whom he may have had sexual relations with, and who were the subjects of numerous nude paintings.^[79] Munch occasionally left his home to paint murals on commission, including those done for the Freia chocolate factory.^[80]

To the end of his life, Munch continued to paint unsparing self-portraits, adding to his self-searching cycle of his life and his unflinching series of snapshots of his emotional and physical states. In the 1930s and 1940s, the Nazis labeled Munch's work "degenerate art" (along with Picasso, Paul Klee, Matisse, Gauguin and many other modern artists) and removed his 82 works from German museums.^[81] Adolf Hitler announced in 1937, "For all we care, those prehistoric Stone Age culture barbarians and art-stutterers can return to the caves of their ancestors and there can apply their primitive international scratching."^[82]

In 1940, the Germans invaded Norway and the Nazi party took over the government. Munch was seventy-six years old. With nearly an entire collection of his art in the second floor of his house, Munch lived in fear of a Nazi confiscation. Seventy-one of the paintings previously taken by the Nazis had found their way back to Norway through purchase by collectors (the other eleven were never recovered), including The Scream and The Sick Child, and they too were hidden from the Nazis.^[83]

Munch died in his house at Ekely near Oslo on 23 January 1944, about a month after his 80th birthday. His Nazi-orchestrated funeral left the impression with Norwegians that he was a Nazi sympathizer.^[84] The city of Oslo bought the Ekely estate from his heirs in 1946 and demolished his house in May 1960.^[85]

Legacy[link]

When Munch died, his remaining works were bequeathed to the city of Oslo, which built the Munch Museum at Tøyen (it opened in 1963). The museum hosts a collection of approximately 1,100 paintings, 4,500 drawings, and 18,000 prints, the broadest collection of his works in the world.^[87] The Munch Museum currently serves at Munch's official Estate,^[87] and has been active in responding to copyright infringements, as well as clearing copyright for the work, such as the appearance of Munch's The Scream in a 2006 M&M's advertisement campaign.^[88] The U.S. copyright representative for the Munch Museum and the Estate of Edvard Munch is the Artists Rights Society.^[89]

Munch's art was highly personalized and he did little teaching. His "private" symbolism was far more personal than that of other Symbolist painters such as Gustave Moreau and James Ensor. Nonetheless, Munch was highly influential, particularly with the German Expressionists, who followed his philosophy, "I do not believe in the art which is not the compulsive result of Man's urge to open his heart."^[40] Many of his paintings, including The Scream, have universal appeal in addition to their highly personal meaning.

Munch's works are now represented in numerous major museums and galleries in Norway and abroad. After the Cultural Revolution in the People's Republic of China ended, Munch was the first Western artist to have his pictures exhibited at the National Gallery in Beijing. His cabin "the Happy House" was given to the municipality of Åsgårdstrand in 1944 and is now a small Munch museum. The inventory is still exactly as he left it.

One version of The Scream was stolen from the National Gallery in 1994. In 2004, another version of The Scream, along with one of Madonna, were stolen from the Munch Museum in a daring daylight robbery. All were eventually recovered, but the paintings stolen in the 2004 robbery were extensively damaged. They have been meticulously restored and are on display again. Three Munch works were stolen from the Hotel Refsnes Gods in 2005; they were shortly recovered, although one of the works was damaged during the robbery.^[90]

In October 2006, the color woodcut Two people. The lonely (To mennesker. De ensomme) set a new record for his prints when it was sold at an auction in Oslo for 8.1 million NOK (1.27 million US$). It also set a record for the highest price paid in auction in Norway.^[91] On 3 November 2008, the painting Vampire set a new record for his paintings when it was sold for 38.162 million US$ at Sotheby's New York.

Munch appears on the Norwegian 1,000 kroner note, along with pictures inspired by his artwork.^[92]

In February 2012, a major Munch exhibition, "the Modern Eye", opened at the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt; the exhibition was opened by Mette-Marit, Crown Princess of Norway.^[93]

In May 2012, "The Scream" sold for $119.9 million, becoming the most expensive artwork ever sold at an open auction.^[94]

List of major works[link]

• 1892 — Evening on Karl Johan
• 1893 — The Scream
• 1894 — Ashes
• 1894–1895 — Madonna
• 1895 — Puberty
• 1895 — Self-Portrait with Burning Cigarette
• 1895 — Death in the Sickroom
• 1899–1900 — The Dance of Life
• 1899–1900 — The Dead Mother
• 1940–1942 — Self Portrait: Between Clock and Bed

Gallery[link]

• TheSickChild-by-EdvardMunch-FourthVersion.jpg

  The Sick Child (1885–87). Tate Gallery, London.

• August Stindberg.jpg

  August Strindberg. 1892. Oil on canvas, 120 × 90 cm. Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm, Sweden

• The Scream.jpg

  The Scream. 1893. Oil, tempera, and pastel on cardboard. Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo

• Munch vampire.jpg

  Vampire. 1893–94. Oil on canvas. Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo

• Munch Ashes.jpg

  Ashes. 1894. Oil on canvas. 120.5 × 141 cm. Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo

• Edvard Munch - Madonna (1894-1895).jpg

  Madonna. 1894–95. Oil on canvas. 36 × 28 in. Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo

• Munch deathSickroom.jpg

  Death in the Sickroom. c. 1895. Oil on canvas. 59 × 66 in. Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo

• Edvard Munch, Lady from the sea.jpg

  Lady From the Sea (detail). 1896. Oil on canvas. 39½ × 126 in.

• Munch DanceOfLife.jpg

  The Dance of Life. 1899–1900. Oil on canvas, 49½ × 75 in. Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo

• Nietzsche-munch.jpg

  Portrait of Friedrich Nietzsche (1906)

• Munch death of marat I 1907.jpg

  Death of Marat I (1907)

See also[link]

• Edvard Munch, a 1974 biographical film

Notes[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Black, Peter; Bruteig, Magne, eds. (2009). Edvard Munch: Prints. London: Philip Wilson. ISBN 0-85667-677-2.  Catalogue of exhibition at the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow and the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
• Dolnick, Edward (2005). The Rescue Artist: A True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers. ISBN 0-06-053118-5.  Recounts the 1994 theft of The Scream from Norway's National Gallery in Oslo, and its eventual recovery
• Heller, Reinhold, ed. (1984). Munch: His Life and Work. London: Murray. ISBN 0-7195-4116-6. 
• Holland, J. Gill (2005). The Private Journals of Edvard Munch: We Are Flames Which Pour Out of the Earth. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0-299-19814-6. 
• Schiefler, Gustav (1907) (in German). Verzeichnis Des Graphischen Werks Edvard Munchs Bis 1906. Berlin: B. Cassirer. OCLC 39789318. 
• Schiefler, Gustav (1927) (in German). Das Graphische Werk Von Edvard Munch: 1906-1926. Berlin: Euphorion Verlag. OCLC 638113186. 
• Woll, Gerd (2009). Edvard Munch: Complete Paintings: Catalogue Raisonné. 4v. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-09345-8. 

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Edvard Munch

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Edvard Munch

• Edvard Munch at the Museum of Modern Art
• Edvard Munch
• The Dance of Life Site
• Edvard Munch Catalogue Raisonné
• Munch at Olga's Gallery — large online collection of Munch's works (over 200 paintings)
• Munch at artcyclopedia
• Edvard Munch at WikiGallery.org
• Exhibition "Edvard Munch L'oeil moderne" – Centre Pompidou, Paris 2011

Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly in High Society (1956).
Princess consort of Monaco
Tenure	April 19, 1956 – September 14, 1982
Spouse	Rainier III, Prince of Monaco
Issue
Caroline, Princess of Hanover Albert II, Prince of Monaco Princess Stéphanie of Monaco
Full name
Grace Patricia Kelly
House	House of Grimaldi
Father	John B. Kelly, Sr.
Mother	Margaret Katherine Majer
Born	(1929-11-12)November 12, 1929 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died	September 14, 1982(1982-09-14) (aged 52) Monaco
Burial	Monaco Cathedral
Occupation	Actress
Signature
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Grace Patricia Kelly (November 12, 1929 – September 14, 1982) was an American actress who, in April 1956, married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, to become Princess consort of Monaco, styled as Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, and commonly referred to as Princess Grace.

After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of 20, Grace Kelly appeared in New York City theatrical productions as well as in more than forty episodes of live drama productions broadcast during the early 1950s Golden Age of Television. In October 1953, with the release of Mogambo, she became a movie star, a status confirmed in 1954 with a Golden Globe Award and Academy Award nomination as well as leading roles in five films, including The Country Girl, in which she gave a deglamorized, Academy Award-winning performance. She retired from acting at 26 to enter upon her duties in Monaco. She and Prince Rainier had three children: Caroline, Albert, and Stéphanie. She also retained her American roots, maintaining dual US and Monégasque citizenships.

She died after suffering a stroke on September 14, 1982, when she lost control of her automobile and crashed. Her daughter, Princess Stéphanie, was in the car with her, and survived the accident.

In June 1999, the American Film Institute ranked her No.13 in their list of top female stars of American cinema.

Family[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2010)

Grace Kelly was born in Philadelphia to John Brendan "Jack" Kelly, and his wife, Margaret Katherine Majer. The newborn was named after her father's sister, who had died at a young age. She was raised Catholic,^[1][2] and was of Irish and German descent.^[3] Before her marriage, Majer studied physical education at Temple University and later became the first woman to head the Physical Education Department at the University of Pennsylvania. Jack Kelly was a local hero as a triple Olympic-gold-medal-winning sculler, and became wealthy as his construction company became the largest such enterprise on the East Coast.^[2] Registering as a Democrat, he obtained the party's nomination for mayor in the 1935 election and lost by the closest margin for any Democrat in the city's history. In later years, he served on the Fairmount Park Commission and, during World War II, was appointed by President Roosevelt as National Director of Physical Fitness.

When Grace was born, the Kellys already had two children, Margaret Katherine, known as Peggy (June 13, 1925 – November 23, 1991) and John Brendan, Jr., known as Kell (May 24, 1927 – May 2, 1985). Another daughter, Elizabeth Anne, known as Lizanne (June 25, 1933 – November 24, 2009), was born three and a half years after Grace.

At Margaret's baptism in 1925, Jack Kelly's mother, Mary Costello Kelly, expressed her disappointment that the baby was not named Grace in memory of her last daughter, who had died young. Upon his mother's death the following year, Jack Kelly resolved that his next daughter would bear the name and, three years later, with the arrival of Grace Patricia in November 1929, his late mother's wish was honored.

Following in his father's athletic footsteps, John Jr. won in 1947 the James E. Sullivan Award as the country's top amateur athlete. Also, similar to his father's gold medals in rowing at the 1920 and 1924 Summer Olympics, he competed in the sport at the 1948, 1952 and the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne where, on November 27, seven months after his sister's Monaco wedding, he won a bronze medal, which he gave to her as a gift of the occasion. He also served as a city councilman, and Philadelphia's Kelly Drive is named for him.

Two of Grace Kelly's uncles were prominent in the arts; her father's eldest brother, Walter C. Kelly (1873–1939), was a vaudeville star whose nationally known act The Virginia Judge was filmed as a 1930 MGM short and a 1935 Paramount feature, and another older brother, George Kelly (1887–1974), estranged from the family due to his homosexuality, became renowned in the 1920s as a dramatist, screenwriter and director with a hit comedy-drama, The Show Off in 1924–25, and was awarded the 1926 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his next play, Craig's Wife.^[4]

Acting career[link]

Grace Kelly
from the film To Catch a Thief
Born	Grace Patricia Kelly
Years active	1950–1956

While attending Ravenhill Academy, a prestigious Catholic girls' school, Kelly modeled fashions at local social events with her mother and sisters. In 1942, at the age of twelve, she played a lead in Don't Feed the Animals, a play produced by the East Falls Old Academy Players.^[4] During high school, she acted and danced, graduating in May 1947 from Stevens School, a small private institution in a mansion on Walnut Lane in the Northwest Philadelphia neighborhood of Germantown. Her graduation yearbook listed her favorite actress as Ingrid Bergman and her favorite actor as Joseph Cotten.^[5] Written in the "Stevens' Prophecy" section was, “Miss Grace P. Kelly – a famous star of stage and screen.”

Theater and television[link]

Because of low mathematics scores, Kelly was rejected by Bennington College in July 1947.^[6] To the dismay of her parents—despite his brothers' occupations, her father viewed acting as "a slim cut above streetwalker"^[2]—Kelly decided to pursue her dreams of a career in the theater. For an audition into the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York she used a scene from her uncle's 1923 play The Torch-Bearers. Although the school had already selected its semester quota, Kelly obtained an interview with the school's admission officer, Emile Diestel, and was admitted due to her uncle George.^[2] Living in Manhattan's Barbizon Hotel for Women, a prestigious establishment which barred men from entering after 10 pm, and working as a model to support her studies, Kelly began her first term the following October. A diligent student, she would use a tape recorder to practice and perfect her speech. Her early acting pursuits led her to the stage, most notably a Broadway debut in Strindberg's The Father alongside Raymond Massey. At 19, her graduation performance was as Tracy Lord in The Philadelphia Story.^[2]

Television producer Delbert Mann cast Kelly as Bethel Merriday, an adaptation of the Sinclair Lewis novel of the same name, in her first of nearly sixty live television programs.^[2] Success on television eventually brought her a role in a major motion picture. Kelly made her film debut in a small role in the 1951 film Fourteen Hours. She was noticed during a visit to the set by Gary Cooper, who subsequently starred with her in High Noon. Cooper was charmed by Kelly and said that she was "different from all these actresses we've been seeing so much of."

However, her performance in Fourteen Hours was not noticed by critics, and did not lead to her receiving other film acting roles. She continued her work in the theater and on television,^[4] although she lacked "vocal horsepower" and would likely not have had a lengthy stage career.^[2] Kelly was performing in Colorado’s Elitch Gardens when she received a telegram from Hollywood producer Stanley Kramer, offering her a co-starring role opposite Gary Cooper in High Noon.

Actress for MGM[link]

With Clark Gable in Mogambo

Kelly's role as Linda Nordley in MGM's production of Mogambo garnered her a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and her first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Although High Noon increased Kelly's prominence in Hollywood, director John Ford noticed her by seeing a 1950 screen test which showed, he said, that Kelly had "breeding, quality and class".^[2] Gene Tierney was initially cast in the role, but due to emotional problems dropped out at the last minute,^[7][8] and the studio flew Kelly to Los Angeles to audition in September 1952. She won the role, along with a 7-year contract at the relatively low salary of $850 a week. Kelly signed the deal under two conditions: First that, one out of every two years, she have time off to work in the theater and second, that she be able to live in New York City, at the now-landmarked Manhattan House, at 200 E. 66th Street.^[9][2] Just two months later, in November, the cast arrived in Nairobi to begin production. She later told Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper, "Mogambo had three things that interested me. John Ford, Clark Gable, and a trip to Africa with expenses paid. If Mogambo had been made in Arizona, I wouldn't have done it."^[10] The filming timetable afforded her opportunity to indulge in types of activities that undoubtedly would not have been broadcast to the likes of Hedda Hopper or her reading public. Kelly and Mogambo co-star Ava Gardner enjoyed a break in the production schedule to journey to Rome and supposedly spent time there "brothel-hopping."^[11]

In Dial M for Murder

After the success of Mogambo, Kelly starred in a TV play The Way of an Eagle, with Jean-Pierre Aumont before being cast in the film adaptation of Frederick Knott's Broadway hit Dial M for Murder. Director Alfred Hitchcock also saw the 1950 screen test^[2] and would become one of Kelly's last mentors. He took full advantage of Kelly's virginal beauty on-camera. In a scene in which her character Margot Wendice is nearly murdered, a struggle breaks out between her and her would-be-killer Tony Dawson as she kicks her legs and flails her arms attempting to fight off her killer. Dial M for Murder opened in theaters in May 1954 to both positive reviews and box-office triumph.

Kelly began filming scenes for her next film, The Bridges at Toko-Ri, in January 1954 with William Holden. The role of Nancy, the wife of naval officer Harry (Holden), proved to be a minor but pivotal part of the story. Released in January 1955, The New Yorker wrote of Kelly and Holden's unbridled on-screen chemistry, taking note of Kelly's performance of the part "with quiet confidence."

In committing to the role of Lisa Fremont in Rear Window, Kelly unhesitatingly turned down the opportunity to star alongside Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront, which won her replacement, Eva Marie Saint, an Academy Award. "All through the making of Dial M for Murder, he [Hitchcock] sat and talked to me about Rear Window all the time, even before we had discussed my being in it."^[12] Much like the shooting of Dial M for Murder, Kelly and Hitchcock shared a close bond of humor and admiration. Sometimes, however, minor strife would emerge on set concerning the wardrobe:

At the rehearsal for the scene in Rear Window when I wore a sheer nightgown, Hitchcock called for Edith Head. He came over here and said, 'Look, the bosom is not right, we're going to have to put something in there.' He was very sweet about it; he didn't want to upset me, so he spoke quietly to Edith. When we went into my dressing room and Edith said, 'Mr. Hitchcock is worried because there's a false pleat here. He wants me to put in falsies.' Well, I said, 'You can't put falsies in this, it's going to show and I'm not going to wear them.' And she said, 'What are we going to do?' So we quickly took it up here, made some adjustments there, and I just did what I could and stood as straight as possible – without falsies. When I walked out onto the set Hitchcock looked at me and at Edith and said, 'See what a difference they make?'

With James Stewart in Rear Window

Kelly's new co-star, James Stewart, was highly enthusiastic about working with her.^[13] The role of Lisa Fremont, a wealthy Manhattan socialite and model, was unlike any of the previous women which she had played. For the very first time, she was an independent career woman. Stewart played a speculative photographer with a broken leg, bound to a wheelchair and so reduced to curiously observing the happenings outside his window. Just as he had done earlier, Hitchcock provided the camera with a slow-sequenced silhouette of Kelly, along with a close-up of the two stars kissing and finally lingering closely on her profile. With the film's opening in October 1954, Kelly was again praised. Variety's film critic remarked on the casting, commenting about the "earthy quality to the relationship between Stewart and Miss Kelly. Both do a fine job of the picture's acting demands."^[14]

Kelly won the role of Bing Crosby's long-suffering wife, Georgie Elgin, in The Country Girl, after a pregnant Jennifer Jones bowed out. Already familiar with the play, Kelly was desperate for the part. This meant that, to MGM's dismay, she would have to be loaned out to Paramount. Kelly threatened the studio that she would pack her bags and leave for New York for good. The vanquished studio caved in, and the part was hers.

The film also paired Kelly again with William Holden. The wife of a washed-up alcoholic singer, played by Crosby, Kelly's character is emotionally torn between two lovers. Holden willfully begs Kelly to leave her husband and be with him. A piece of frail tenderness manages to cloak itself inside of her, even after having been demonized by Crosby, describing "a pathetic hint of frailty in a wonderful glowing man. That appeals a lot to us. It did to me. I was so young. His weaknesses seemed touching and sweet, they made me love him more."

As a result of her performance in The Country Girl, Kelly was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Her main competitor for the prize was Judy Garland's much heralded comeback performance in A Star Is Born; playing not only the part of an up and coming actress-singer, but also ironically, the wife of an alcoholic movie star. Although Kelly won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for best actress for her performances in her three big movie roles of 1954 (Rear Window, Dial M For Murder, and The Country Girl), she and Garland both received Golden Globe Awards for their respective performances.

By the following March, the race between Kelly and Garland for the Oscar was very close. On the night of the Academy Awards telecast, March 30, 1955, Garland was unable to attend because she was in the hospital having just given birth to her son, Joseph Luft. However, she was rumored to be the odds-on favorite, and NBC Television cameras were set up in her hospital room so that if she was announced as the winner, Garland could make her acceptance speech live from her hospital bed. However, when William Holden announced Kelly as the winner, the technicians immediately dismantled the cameras without saying one word to Garland. Garland was reported not to have been very gracious about Kelly's win, saying in later years, "I didn't appreciate Grace Kelly taking off her makeup and walking away with my Oscar."

In April 1954, Kelly flew to Colombia for a 10-day shoot on her next project, Green Fire, with Stewart Granger. Kelly played Catherine Knowland, a coffee plantation owner. In Granger's autobiography he writes of his distaste for the film's script, while Kelly later confided to Hedda Hopper, "It wasn't pleasant. We worked at a pathetic village – miserable huts and dirty. Part of the crew got shipwrecked ... It was awful."^[10] Green Fire was a critical and box-office failure.

With Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief

After the back-to-back filming of Rear Window, Toko-Ri, Country Girl and Green Fire, Kelly flew to France, along with department store heir Bernard "Barney" Strauss, to begin work on her third and last film for Alfred Hitchcock, To Catch a Thief. Kelly and her co-star, Cary Grant, developed a mutual admiration. The two cherished their time together for the rest of their lives. Years later, when asked to name his all-time favorite actress, Grant replied without hesitation: "Well, with all due respect to dear Ingrid Bergman, I much preferred Grace. She had serenity."^[15] The fireworks scene has been the subject of much commentary, as Hitchcock peppers an undertone of sexual innuendo during the sequence.

Marriage[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Kelly headed the US delegation at the Cannes Film Festival in April 1955. While there, she was invited to participate in a photo session at the Palace of Monaco with Prince Rainier III, the sovereign of the principality. After a series of delays and complications, Kelly met the prince in Monaco.

Upon returning to America, Kelly began work on The Swan, in which she coincidentally portrayed a princess. Meanwhile, she was privately beginning a correspondence with Rainier. In December, Rainier came to America on a trip officially designated as a tour, although it was speculated that Rainier was actively seeking a wife. A 1918 treaty with France stated that if Rainier did not produce an heir, Monaco would revert to France as a result of the Monaco Succession Crisis of 1918. At a press conference in the United States, Rainier was asked if he was pursuing a wife, to which he answered, "No." A second question was posed, asking, "If you were pursuing a wife, what kind would you like?" Rainier smiled and answered, "I don't know – the best." Rainier met Kelly and her family, and after three days, the prince proposed. Kelly accepted and the families began preparing for what the press called "The Wedding of the Century." Kelly and her family had to provide Prince Rainier with a dowry of 2 million USD in order for the marriage to go ahead. The religious wedding was set for April 19, 1956. News of the engagement was a sensation even though it meant the possible end to Kelly's film career. Alfred Hitchcock had quipped that he was "very happy that Grace has found herself such a good part."

With Frank Sinatra in High Society

Preparations for the wedding were elaborate. The Palace of Monaco was painted and redecorated throughout. On April 4, 1956, leaving from Pier 84 in New York Harbor, Kelly, with her family, bridesmaids, poodle, and over eighty pieces of luggage boarded the ocean liner SS Constitution for the French Riviera. Some 400 reporters applied to sail, though most were turned away. Thousands of fans sent the party off for the eight-day voyage. In Monaco, more than 20,000 people lined the streets to greet the future princess consort.

That same year, MGM released Kelly's last film, the musical comedy High Society (based on the studio's 1940 comedy Philadelphia Story). One highlight of the film was Kelly's duet with Bing Crosby, singing "True Love," with words and music by Cole Porter.

Princess of Monaco[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Kelly and Rainier had both civil and religious weddings. The 40-minute civil ceremony took place in the Palace Throne Room of Monaco on April 18, 1956, and was broadcast across Europe. To cap the ceremony, the 142 official titles (counterparts of Rainier's) that Kelly acquired in the union were formally recited. The following day the church ceremony took place at Monaco's Saint Nicholas Cathedral. Kelly's wedding dress, designed by MGM's Academy Award–winning Helen Rose, was worked on for six weeks by three dozen seamstresses. The bridesmaid's gowns were designed by Joe Allen Hong at Neiman Marcus after Lawrence Marcus visited Monaco. The 600 guests included Hollywood stars David Niven and his wife Hjördis, Gloria Swanson, Ava Gardner, the crowned head Aga Khan, Gloria Guinness, Aimée de Heeren^{[citation needed]}, Daisy Fellowes, Etti Plesch, Lady Diana Cooper, and Conrad Hilton. Frank Sinatra initially accepted an invitation but at the last minute decided otherwise, afraid of upstaging the bride on her wedding day. The ceremony was watched by an estimated 30 million people on television. The prince and princess left that night for their seven-week Mediterranean honeymoon cruise on Rainier's yacht, Deo Juvante II.

Royal monogram as Princess

As Princess of Monaco, she founded AMADE Mondiale, a Monaco-based non-profit organization eventually recognized by the UN as a Non-Governmental Organization. According to UNESCO's website, AMADE promotes and protects the "moral and physical integrity" and "spiritual well-being of children throughout the world, without distinction of race, nationality or religion and in a spirit of complete political independence." Her daughter Princess Caroline carries the torch for AMADE today in her role as President.

Children and family[link]

Princess Grace gave birth to the couple's first child, Princess Caroline, nine months and four days after the wedding. Twenty-one guns announced the event, a national holiday was called, gambling ceased, and free champagne flowed throughout the principality. A little over a year later, 101 guns announced the birth of their second child, Prince Albert. Prince Rainier and Princess Grace had three children:

• Caroline Louise Marguerite, Princess of Hanover, born January 23, 1957, and now heiress presumptive to the throne of Monaco
• Albert II, Prince of Monaco, born March 14, 1958, current ruler of the Principality of Monaco
• Princess Stéphanie Marie Elisabeth, born February 1, 1965.

Later years[link]

After the wedding, Prince Rainier banned the screening of Kelly's films.^[16] Hitchcock offered Kelly the lead in his film Marnie in 1962. She was eager, but public outcry in Monaco against her involvement in a film that portrayed her as a kleptomaniac made her reconsider and ultimately reject the project. Director Herbert Ross attempted to lure Princess Grace for his 1977 film The Turning Point, but Prince Rainier quashed the idea. Later that year, Kelly returned to the arts in a series of poetry readings on stage and the narration of the documentary The Children of Theater Street. She also narrated ABC's made-for-television film The Poppy Is Also a Flower (1966).

As princess, Kelly was active in improving the arts institutions of Monaco, and eventually the Princess Grace Foundation was formed to support local artisans. She was one of the first celebrities to support and speak on behalf of La Leche League, an organization that advocates breastfeeding; she planned a yearly Christmas party for local orphans, and dedicated a Garden Club that reflected her love of flowers.

Kelly was also a member of the International Best Dressed List since 1960.^[17]

In 1981, the Prince and Princess celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary.

Personal life[link]

Kelly was the object of the tabloids and gossip throughout her life. Her love life was a particular focus of speculation. Stories of affairs circulated from her first major role in motion pictures and eventually included the names of almost every major actor at the time. It is likely that many of the stories are exaggerated.^[18]

During the making of Dial M for Murder, it is rumored that her co-star, Ray Milland, probably seduced her.^[2] Milland was 22 years older than she. Milland assured Kelly that he had left his wife, which she would later find out to have been a lie.^[19] Muriel Milland was one of the most popular wives in Hollywood and had the support of many friends, including gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. After Muriel Milland found out about the alleged affair, Kelly was branded a homewrecker. After Kelly gave a press interview explaining her side of the story the town seemed to lose interest in the scandal. It was never proven that Kelly actually succumbed to Milland's advances; in fact, her friends at the time, such as Rita Gam, believed she had little interest in him.

Kelly (far right) with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and first lady, Nancy Reagan, 1981

Russian fashion designer, Oleg Cassini, having just seen Mogambo earlier that evening, encountered Grace Kelly having dinner at Le Veau d'Or. Formerly married to actress Gene Tierney, the original choice to play Mogambo's Linda Nordley, Cassini was raised in Florence and had a cultured air with an abundance of charm and courtliness. He became just as captivated by Kelly in person as he had been while watching her in the film and soon piqued her curiosity by sending her a daily bouquet of red roses. His persistence paid off when she accepted his invitation to lunch, with the provision that her eldest sister, Peggy, join them. Although Kelly and Cassini almost married,^[2] their relationship ended with her parents' refusal to accept a divorced non-Catholic as a future son-in-law.

Prince Rainier laid down a list of strict rules when it came to the encounters with the Princess at the palace, which included no autographs, no photographs, no audio recording devices. And no one was allowed to leave the room for anything, unless, and until, the Princess left the room first, so that she would avoid being trapped by a mob of fans. This observation was reported in 1963.^{[citation needed]} Whether either the Prince or Princess had extramarital affairs is unclear, but the couple had become closer just before Kelly's death.^[2]

In a 1960s interview Kelly explained how she had grown to accept the scrutiny as a part of being in the public eye, but expressed concern for her children’s exposure to such relentless "scandal-mongering". After her death celebrity biographers chronicled the rumors with renewed enthusiasm.

Friendship with Josephine Baker[link]

In 1951, the newly famous Kelly took a bold stand against a racist incident involving Black American expatriate singer/dancer Josephine Baker, when Sherman Billingsley's Stork Club in New York refused Baker as a customer. Kelly, who was dining at the club when this happened, was so disgusted that she rushed over to Baker (whom she had never met), took her by the arm, and stormed out with her entire party, vowing never to return (and she never did).^[20] The two women became close friends after that night. A significant testament to their close friendship was made evident when Baker was near bankruptcy, and was offered a villa and financial assistance by Kelly (who by that time had become The Princess of Monaco) and her husband Rainier III of Monaco. The princess also encouraged Baker to return to performing and financed Baker's triumphant comeback in 1975, attending the opening night's performance. When Baker died, the Princess secured her burial in Monaco.^{[citation needed]}

Death[link]

On September 13, 1982, while driving with her daughter, Stéphanie, to Monaco from their country home, Roc Agel, on the French side of the border, Princess Grace suffered a stroke, which caused her to drive her Rover P6^[21][22] off the serpentine road down a mountainside. The accident site is located at 43°43′35″N 7°24′10″E / 43.72639°N 7.40278°E / 43.72639; 7.40278.^[23] Grace was pulled alive from the wreckage, but had suffered serious injuries and was unconscious. She died the following day at the Monaco Hospital (renamed Centre Hospitalier Princesse Grace – "The Princess Grace Hospital Centre" in English—in 1985), having never regained consciousness; she was 52 years old. It was initially reported that Princess Stéphanie suffered only minor bruising, although it later emerged that she had suffered a serious cervical fracture.^[24]

Grace was buried in the Grimaldi family vault on September 18, 1982, after a requiem mass in Saint Nicholas Cathedral, Monaco.^[25] The 400 guests at the service included representatives of foreign governments and of present and past European royal houses. Diana, Princess of Wales represented the British royal family. Cary Grant was among the members of the film community in attendance. Prince Rainier, who did not remarry, was buried alongside her following his death in 2005.^[26]

In his eulogy, James Stewart said:

Legacy[link]

During her pregnancy in 1956 Princess Grace was frequently photographed clutching a distinctive leather hand-bag manufactured by Hermes. The purse, or Sac à dépêches, was likely a shield to prevent Kelly's baby bump from being exposed to the prying eyes of the Paparazzi. The photographs, however, popularized the purse and became so closely associated with the fashion icon that the purse would thereafter be known as the Kelly Bag.^[27]

The Princess Grace Foundation, Monaco was founded in 1964 with the aim of helping those with special needs for whom no provision was made within the ordinary social services. In 1983 following Princess Grace's death, Caroline, Princess of Hanover assumed the duties of President of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation. Albert II, Prince of Monaco is Vice-President.^[28]

The Princess Grace Foundation-USA (PGF-USA) was established following the death of Princess Grace of Monaco to continue the work that she had done, anonymously, during her lifetime, assisting emerging theater, dance and film artists in America. Incorporated in 1982, PGF-USA is headquartered in New York and is a tax-exempt, not-for-profit, publicly supported organization. The Princess Grace Awards, a program of the Princess Grace Foundation-USA, has awarded nearly 500 artists at more than 100 institutions in the U.S. with more than $7 million to date. The Princess Grace Foundation-USA also holds the exclusive rights to, and facilitates the licensing of, Princess Grace of Monaco's name and likeness throughout the world. Princess Grace Foundation-USA

In 1983, an American television film which focused on the early life of the princess was presented featuring Cheryl Ladd and Ian McShane as Grace and Prince Rainier.^[29]

On June 18, 1984, Prince Rainier inaugurated a public rose garden in Monaco in Princess Grace's memory because of her passion for the flower.^[30]

In 1993, Princess Grace became the first U.S. actress to appear on a U.S. postage stamp.^[16][31]

In 2003, 83 years after Olympic Gold Medalist John Kelly, Sr. was refused entry to the most prestigious rowing event in the world, the Henley Royal Regatta renamed the Women's Quadruple Sculls after his daughter, "Princess Grace Challenge Cup". Princess Grace was invited to present the prizes at the Henley Royal Regatta in 1981 as a peace offering by the Henley Stewards to put a long conflict (61 years) between the Kelly family and Stewards to rest. (NOTE: her brother, John Kelly, Jr., won the Diamond Sculls at Henley in 1947 and 1949 as well as a Bronze Medal in the single sculls at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne.) In 2004 her son, Prince Albert, presented the prizes at the Henley Royal Regatta.

On April 1, 2006, The Philadelphia Museum of Art presented an exhibition entitled, Fit for a Princess: Grace Kelly's Wedding Dress, that ran through May 21, 2006. The exhibition was in honor of the 50th anniversary of Princess Grace and Prince Rainier's wedding.^[32]

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of her death, €2 commemorative coins were issued on July 1, 2007 with the "national" side bearing the image of Princess Grace. In Monaco (at the Grimaldi Forum) and the United States (at Sotheby's) a large Princess Grace exhibition, coordinated by the Princely Family, called "Grace, Princess of Monaco: A Tribute to the Life and Legacy of Grace Kelly", celebrated her life and her contribution to the arts through her Foundation.

In 2008, Princess Stephanie opened the "Epoch of Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco" at the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation in Moscow.

In October 2009, a plaque was placed on the "Rodeo Drive Walk of Style" in recognition of Princess Grace's contributions to style and fashion.^[33]

In November 2009, to commemorate what would have been her 80th birthday, TCM named her as star of the month which saw Prince Albert II pay a special tribute to his mother.^[34]

In 2010, an exhibition of Grace Kelly's clothes was held at the Victoria and Albert Museum.^[35] The exhibition was opened by Prince Albert and Charlene Wittstock in April 2010. This exhibition will continue in Australia at the Bendigo Art Gallery between March 11 and July 17, 2012.^[36]

In November 2011, the exhibition "Grace Kelly: from movie star to princess" at the Toronto International Film Festival was opened by Prince Albert and Princess Charlene.

Titles and styles[link]

Titles held by the Princess of Monaco, in chronological order:

• Miss Grace Patricia Kelly (November 12, 1929 – April 18, 1956)
• Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco (April 18, 1956 – September 14, 1982)

Princess Grace's official style and title was: Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, Duchess of Valentinois, Marchioness of Baux, Countess of Carlades, Baroness of Saint-Lô, 101 times Dame.^{[citation needed]} Upon her marriage to Prince Rainier III, she received 138 titles in all.^[37][38]

Screen credits[link]

Filmography[link]

Television appearances and filmography[link]