Melancholy (Jappe on the beach)

A hunched figure fills the right side of this painting by Edvard Munch, his head propped against his hand as he stares into nothing. This is Jappe Nilssen, a real friend of the artist who was tangled up in an unhappy love affair when the picture was made in 1892. The setting is a quiet shore where a curving beach sweeps back toward a small dock. Out there, tiny figures gather beside a boat, a subtle nod to the very romance that has left Jappe so lost in his gloom.

Munch is remembered above all for "The Scream," and this canvas belongs to the same stretch of his career when he cared far more about mood than accurate detail. The winding line of the coast and the soft purples and browns overhead seem to carry the same weight pressing on the man's shoulders. That way of letting emotion steer every color and shape helped pave the way for the movement later called Expressionism. Instead of spinning out a big dramatic tale, the work rests in a single familiar feeling, the heavy stillness that settles over us when the heart aches.