The works, called The Lonely Ones with an estimate of £400,000-600,000, and Self-Portrait estimated at £50,000-70,000, were separately purchased directly from Munch by two devoted supporters.
The Lonely Ones was purchased from Munch in 1942 by his friend Harald Holst Halvorsen. It changed hands in the 1970s when the current owner acquired it from a gallery in Oslo. It depicts two figures standing on the shore at Åsgårdstrand and was produced in 1899.
Self-Portrait is being sold by a private Norwegian collection and was originally owned by Olaf Schou, the Norwegian industrialist and art patron. It was produced in Berlin in the autumn of 1895, when Munch was 31.
A third Munch is also available at the same sale. Munch: Attraction I, lithograph, 1896, carries an estimate of £35,000-45,000.
Lucy Rosenburgh, Sotheby’s prints specialist, said: “Schou and Halvorsen were two of Munch’s most important patrons, with whom he enjoyed an equally strong friendship. The notable provenance of these prints makes their appearance on the market all the more appealing to collectors.”
Earlier this year Sotheby’s sold a lithograph of Munch’s The Scream – originally owned by Olaf Schou – for £1.8m, a price which established a record for a print of the work at auction. In May 2012 in New York, Sotheby’s sold Munch’s 1895 pastel on board version of The Scream – from the Olsen Collection – for $120m (£73.9m).
