Workers in the Snow by Edvard Munch

Celebrating the dignity of collective labor and the physical effort of the working classes, this vast figurative fresco is fully part of the modern expressionist movement. The Norwegian painter Edvard Munch structures the scene with a monumental vigor, immortalizing the toil of workers in the heart of winter. This powerful painting, which bears the title of “Workers in the Snow”, invites a respectful contemplation of human perseverance facing harsh climatic elements.

Three robust workers advance abreast in the foreground, walking directly toward the attentive viewer through an entirely snowy and white country landscape. The man in the center, wearing a dark and warm fur cap, holds a large shovel on his right shoulder with an expression of resolute fatigue on his moustached face. His companions, wearing dark hats and dressed in heavy worn blue and black jackets, also hold large iron shovels planted in the snowy ground. In the background, a multitude of other workers activates courageously on the white hill under a pale, opaque, and cloudy sky. The colored touches are dense.

The artist’s reinvented traditional expertise shines through in this rapid and saturated application of matter that breathes an extraordinary vitality into the scene. His mastery of oil painting confers an unquestionable carnal presence and a superb expressive realism to each human figure represented.