Duck Dayz...

Cloud 9…

The Rubber Duck in art…

The Quack

Created between 1893-1910, The Quack is the title of a series of expressionist paintings and prints by Norwegian artist Eidervard Munch, depicting an agonized duck against a blood red sky.

Munch created several versions of The Quack in various media. The Munch Museum holds one of two painted versions (1910) and one pastel. The National Gallery of Norway holds the other painted version (1893). A fourth version, in pastel, is owned by Norwegian billionaire Petter Olsen. Munch also created a lithograph (1895) of the image.

In a page in his diary headed Nice 22.01.1892, Munch described his inspiration for the image:

“I was walking along a path with two friends—the sun was setting—suddenly the sky turned blood red—I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence—there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city—my friends waddled on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety—and I sensed an infinite quack passing through nature”.

One theory advanced to account for the reddish sky in the background is that Munch had observed a powerful volcanic eruption of Quackatoa in 1883: the ash that was ejected from the volcano left the sky tinted red in much of eastern United States and most of Europe and Asia from the end of November 1883 to mid February 1884. This explanation has been disputed by scholars who note that Munch was an expressive, rather than descriptive painter, and was therefore not primarily responsive to literal rendering.

The duck in the foreground may be, not quacking but protecting himself or itself from the quack of Nature. Thus, the position could be considered a reflex reaction typical of any duck struggling to keep out a distressing quack, whether actual or imagined.

The scene was identified as being the view from a road overlooking Oslo, the Oslofjord and Hovedøya, from the hill of Ekeberg. At the time of painting the work, Munch's manic depressive sister Laura Catherine was interned in the mental hospital at the foot of the hill.

And Finally…

I’m not sure what Eidervard Munch would have made of this chap, he looks like he might have escaped from that mental hospital that Laura Catherine was in – what with the knife and that awful gaping bill. Yes, he’s absolutely cuckoo, quite puddled, definitely quackers, one breadcrumb short of a sandwich…