Train Smoke

A plume of white train smoke drifts across a curving coastal landscape, the sinuous shoreline and shimmering water rendered in Munch's flowing, rhythmic strokes. The puff of steam marks the intrusion of the modern, mechanized world into the quiet of nature. Now in the Munch Museum in Oslo, Train Smoke shows the Norwegian master turning from raw psychological drama to landscape, yet keeping his restless, expressive line - the natural scene charged with mood and movement, the fleeting trail of smoke a small modern note disturbing the timeless calm of sea and shore.