Actually a series of paintings and prints (Munch clearly tried to
monopolize on his success). Munch's mother died of TB when he was 7,
his sister died of the same when he was 16. One of his younger sisters
was diagnosed with schizophrenia at a young age. He himself wrote that
he inherited 2 of mankind's most terrible enemies – consumption and
insanity. He developed a respiratory illness himself in childhood, and
was told by his father (a doctor) to prepare himself for death, while
the family kept a vigil by his bedside. Other famous works include The
Sick Child, based on his sister's death, and a cycle of paintings called
the Frieze of Life – A Poem about Life, Love and Death.