Edvard Munch: The Death of the Bohemian
The Death of the Bohemian Jappe Nilssen, an art critic, author and friend of Hans Jæger visited the writer at his deathbed. Jæger was a leading figure in Kristiania's literary circle of Bohemians in the 1880s. Jappe's niece, Erna Holmboe Bang, recounted some of her uncle's memories of the ageing Bohemian's death in an article in the newspaper Dagbladet in 1933: I can still recall my uncle, who was then living with us, getting a telephone summoning him to his deathbed. But it wasn't until many years later that I was told the whole story. It was one of the final days of the month. When my uncle entered the room Mrs. Henrik Lund was sitting with the dying man's head cradled in her hand. He was lying there with his eyes closed. A woman was pacing back and forth in the room, screaming that Jæger owed her 600 kroner, which were in a chest of drawers, and of which she was the rightful owner. If she wasn't given the money straight away she was going to throw herself out the window. She also demanded all his manuscripts and letters. Outside in the hall a drunken painter was wandering restlessly, claiming he believed the dying man was in possession of a half bottle of whisky, or at least a swig or two. He wanted in. But he was turned back at the door time and again. Hans Jæger really wasn't allowed to die in peace. During the throes of death you could hear impatient footsteps outside in the hall. Hans Jæger must have heard them too, because when my uncle entered he opened his eyes and said completely lucidly: "Fairwell, my dear Jappe, thank you for our friendship!" Soon afterwards Mrs. Lund who had sat faithfully at his bedside said, "Hans Jæger has just died." In the resulting confusion, the painter found his chance to rush in and nab the bottle of whisky. [...] When my uncle later told Edvard Munch about this death scenario it made such a powerful impact on him that he painted his marvelous picture The Death of the Bohemian. In January 1910, Jappe Nilssen sent a letter to Edvard Munch, in deep despair on his own behalf. In the letter he also tells with blunt realism of the sick and doomed Hans Jæger. When Erna Holmboe Bang edited and published the correspondence between Edvard Munch and Jappe Nilssen in 1946, this letter was left out. Finally, here it is, more than a hundred years later.
The Death of the Bohemian Jappe Nilssen, an art critic, author and friend of Hans Jæger visited the writer at his deathbed. Jæger was a leading figure in Kristiania's literary circle of Bohemians in the 1880s. Jappe's niece, Erna Holmboe Bang, recounted some of her uncle's memories of the ageing Bohemian's death in an article in the newspaper Dagbladet in 1933: I can still recall my uncle, who was then living with us, getting a telephone summoning him to his deathbed. But it wasn't until many years later that I was told the whole story. It was one of the final days of the month. When my uncle entered the room Mrs. Henrik Lund was sitting with the dying man's head cradled in her hand. He was lying there with his eyes closed. A woman was pacing back and forth in the room, screaming that Jæger owed her 600 kroner, which were in a chest of drawers, and of which she was the rightful owner. If she wasn't given the money straight away she was going to throw herself out the window. She also demanded all his manuscripts and letters. Outside in the hall a drunken painter was wandering restlessly, claiming he believed the dying man was in possession of a half bottle of whisky, or at least a swig or two. He wanted in. But he was turned back at the door time and again. Hans Jæger really wasn't allowed to die in peace. During the throes of death you could hear impatient footsteps outside in the hall. Hans Jæger must have heard them too, because when my uncle entered he opened his eyes and said completely lucidly: "Fairwell, my dear Jappe, thank you for our friendship!" Soon afterwards Mrs. Lund who had sat faithfully at his bedside said, "Hans Jæger has just died." In the resulting confusion, the painter found his chance to rush in and nab the bottle of whisky. [...] When my uncle later told Edvard Munch about this death scenario it made such a powerful impact on him that he painted his marvelous picture The Death of the Bohemian. In January 1910, Jappe Nilssen sent a letter to Edvard Munch, in deep despair on his own behalf. In the letter he also tells with blunt realism of the sick and doomed Hans Jæger. When Erna Holmboe Bang edited and published the correspondence between Edvard Munch and Jappe Nilssen in 1946, this letter was left out. Finally, here it is, more than a hundred years later.