“I am dancing with my true love – a memory of her. A smiling, blond-haired woman enters who wishes to take the flower of love – but it won’t allow itself to be taken. And on the other side one can see her dressed in black troubled by the couple dancing – rejected – as I was rejected from her [Mrs. heiberg’s] dance (Müller=Westermann 78).”
Munch’s description of the painting in his diary.
“A parable of human existence and of destiny that dominates our adventure on earth” (Edvard Munch 84)