Anna E. Munch comes from a wealthy family, where music, art and literature is a natural part of everyday life. Her father, the writer Andreas Munch, is Norwegian and related to Edvard Munch, while her sister, Helga, later becomes a photographer. Munch herself possesses a distinct artistic talent, drawing portraits even as a child. She trains as a painter, studies in Paris with the renowned Jean Paul Laurens and later in Denmark with Julius Paulsen. She makes her début at Charlottenborg’s Spring Exhibition in 1898. History, Nordic mythology and Grundtvigian Christianity plays a significant role in her childhood home and determines her choice of motifs.

As an artist, she achieves considerable success, not least considering the somewhat dismissive attitude of the time towards female artists. She is given the opportunity to create altarpieces for various Danish churches, and for a number of years she completes major, prestigious decoration commissions. While most of her female peers tends to work with everyday motifs such as flowers, interiors and still-lifes, Anna Munch works from the outset within more respected “male” genres, and her preferred range of motifs is found outside the home. Munch remains unmarried and childless, instead dedicating herself to her art, which is largely possible due to her wealthy background. She lives and shares a large part of her life with the writer Sofie Breum and also has a close and lifelong friendship with the sculptor Niels Hansen Jacobsen.