(1863 Løten/Hedmark/Norway - 1944 Ekeby/Oslo) "The Sick Child I" (also titled "The Sick Girl I"). Original title chalk lithograph/paper, 1896. Signed and numbered in stone; Wvz. Woll 72. The sheet was created during Munch's extended stay in Paris (1896-1898) and belongs to the significant body of work "The Sick Child" - a thematically connected group of six paintings and a series of prints (lithographs, drypoint etchings, and etchings) that Munch created between 1885 and 1926. In them, Munch processed the death of his older sister Johanne Sophie (1862-1877), who died of tuberculosis at the young age of 15. It was a deeply tragic and traumatic event for Munch, which he had been unable to let go of since his childhood and continuously attempted to process in his art. In the paintings, while depicting Johanne Sophie on her deathbed with a grieving woman by her side, he focused the composition on the head and chest area in the famous graphic version of the motif presented here. With this reduction, he intensified the expression and content of the representation. Munch shows the moment with great sensitivity and empathy; the pale girl is depicted in profile, looking suffering and with an empty gaze into her (un)certain future. The representation of the lithograph undoubtedly belongs to the most significant and artistically mature graphic works in Munch's oeuvre. At the same time, it is one of the main works in the history of printmaking around 1900. The lithograph was printed in a small edition in various variants and conditions in close collaboration between Munch and Auguste Clot, who had just established his own studio in Paris (1895/96). Munch experimented highly individually with stone and color variations, using different papers. Some prints thus obtained a unique character. The stones remained in Paris and were destroyed, which is why no later prints exist. Representation approx. 42 cm x 56 cm. Framed. On the verso of the frame, stamp of Greve Wedels Plass Auctioneer, Oslo, and label with lot no. 25. Further copies of the lithograph are also in the collection of the Munch Museum in Oslo, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin, and the Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main. Provenance: Auction "The Annual Norwegian Edvard Munch Sale 2001," Greve Wedels Plass Auctioneer, Oslo, 27th November 2001, lot 25; Northern German private collection. Lithograph "The Sick Child I" on paper. Hand-signed, further signed on the stone. Woll 72. Provenance: private collection, Northern Germany, acquired in the Munch auction by Greve Wedels Plass Auctioneer, Oslo, 27th November 2001, lot 25.