Edvard Munch used a simple composition for this sickbed scene, placing the main image in the centre and to the fore of the pictorial space. The sparseness of the details serves to highlight certain prominent elements, such as the girl’s head against the white pillow, the woman’s bent neck, and the point of contact between the two. Hailed as Edvard Munch’s breakthrough work, The Sick Child evinces his turn toward a more personal, expressive, and emotionally charged form of art. The painting is often seen in connection with Munch’s loss of his one-year-older sister Sophie, who died of tuberculosis in 1877. Dying children were moreover a common subject among the artists of the period.

   The picture’s style sets it apart from the more naturally lit, true-to-life realism favoured by Munch’s contemporaries. Thick layers of paint alternate with thin, trickling stripes, pastose brushstrokes with scratches and abrasions. The work was created over a long span of time. The picture’s physical surface draws attention to itself; it is as though Munch stopped working right in the middle of the creative process. It was with this painting that Munch revealed himself to be the master of the “unfinished” work of art.

   The Sick Child was first shown at the Autumn Exhibition in 1886, under the title Study, and with its unconventional form the painting was met with both outrage and acclaim. It became a “scandalous success”, and has ever since remained one of Munch’s best known and most discussed works. Munch would later paint five further versions of this scene, one of which Olaf Schou donated to the National Gallery in 1909. In 1931 this later version was exchanged for Munch’s original version from 1885–86.

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      爱德华·蒙克在克里斯蒂安·蒙克医生5个孩子中排行第二。医生的职业在挪威知识分子圈子里是颇受尊重的。这虽然给蒙克以小小的安慰，但是他仍记得他童年时代对于疾病挥之不去的恐惧心理。他回忆说，他深深记得，5岁那年，他和6岁的姐姐约翰娜·苏菲，还有别的弟妹一起，站在母亲的病床前面，苏菲唱一首《寂静的夜》的歌；随后，他们的母亲便亲切地吻他们每个人。可是不久他们便得知，母亲就因肺结核病死了。

　　在整个童年时代，蒙克自己也经常生病、发烧。到了10岁多，他见他最亲密的朋友和玩伴时，姐姐苏菲总是窝在沙发里，盖一袭毛毯、压着枕头。1877年，她15岁他14岁时，苏菲终于抵抗不了这神秘的肺结核了。苏菲病逝后，丧姐的伤痛在蒙克的心中留下深刻的烙印：只要有可能，他终究要把自己的这一体验转化到艺术中去。这结果就是蒙克在1886年完成的画作，影响深远的《病孩》（The Sick Child），当时他还只有23岁。同样的画，蒙克先后创作出四个版本，1886、1896、1907、1925年，大约每隔10年一幅，直至60多岁，此外还有多幅习作。苏菲之死有如一部大歌剧中的主旋律，贯串蒙克整整一生。

　　蒙克的这些作品，都记录了他姐姐苏菲病逝前的一刻。他在创作这些作品时，一次又一次回忆起这一使他陷入深重创伤的事件。画作典型地表现了苏菲病逝前的一段时间：她无力地坐在病榻上，她的姑妈，那个黑发的老妇人，忧伤地陪在她身边。苏菲倚着一只白色的大枕头，看着那面象征死亡的不祥的窗帘，脸上忧心地现出痛苦的表情。老妇人握着她的手，似乎想要安慰她，但是她自己的头也垂了下来，实在不忍心看自己深爱的侄女就要离开现实世界……