 |
|
Self-Portrait After Spanish Flu
|
|
| Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings. |
|
|
|
For as long as I can remember I have suffered from a deep feeling of anxiety which I have tried to express in my art. Without anxiety and illness I would have been like a ship without a rudder.
Munch to his doctor and friend, K. E. Schreiner1(p22)
"Do you find it nauseating?" "What do you mean?" "Don't you recognize the smell?" "The smell?" "Yes, the odor of death—don’t you see I’m on the brink of rotting away?"
Munch in dialogue with Rolf Stenersen about his self-portrait2(p66)
The Spanish flu passed across the North Sea and arrived in Norway in 3 waves in the summer and fall of 1918 and the early months of 1919. Almost half of the Norwegian population of 2.5 million was affected; 15 000 died (5.7/1000).3 Worldwide the death toll was more than 50 million; approximately 675 000 died in the United States (6.5/1000). The Norwegian summer epidemic . . . [Full Text of this Article]
James C. Harris, MD
|
