Interesting Art Stories: 2. The Scream, Edvard Munch

How are you?

From last week on every Thursday, I am introducing the stories about various artists and their paintings with the title “Interesting Art Stories”.

The 2nd story for this week is "The Scream" by Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch.

“The Scream” is a painting created by Edvard Munch, a Norwegian Expressionist painter, in 1893. 

The original title by Munch is “Der Schrei der Natur (The Scream of Nature)” in German and “Skrik” in Norwegian.

Munch recorded how this work was born in his diary, and his record made this painting more interesting.

According to his diary, Munch was walking along the street one day at sunset. Then for a moment, he stopped walking and looked at the sky. What he saw then was clouds in blood red color. Anxious and tired, he saw it and felt like the nature was screaming. 

After the incident, he expressed the entire incident on the canvas, drawing a series of “The Scream”, with clouds in blood red color that he experienced that evening.

Later, Munch described his personal anguish behind the painting, saying that he was almost mad for years at the time.

However, scholars have suggested various interpretations for the bloody red sky in this work, including the claims that it was inspired from the volcanic eruption of Krakatoa in 1883, and that it was caused by Munch's mental disorder.

In addition to the few remaining prints from a lithograph stone, Munch created two versions in paint and two in pastels. 

Oil, tempera and pastel on cardboard (1893)

Tempera on cardboard (1910)

Pastel on cardboard (1893)

Pastel on cardboard (1895)

Lithograph print (1895)

Ink drawing (Undated)

Among them, one pastel version became one of the most expensive paintings in art history when it was sold at Sotheby’s “Impressionist and Modern Art” auction on 2 May 2012 to a financier Leon Blac for about $ 120 million.

The immense popularity of "The Scream" is also evident in the fact that it has been stolen twice. 

In 1994, the version in National Gallery was stolen, but recovered a few months later. 

In the case of the Munch Museum, in 2004, the painted version of “The Scream” was stolen along with Munch's another work, “Madonna”, but both were recovered two years later.

Madonna, Version from Munch Museum, Oslo (1894)

This work also has been used in commercials and movies. 

For example, the Ghostface mask from the horror film series “Scream” is based on this work.

The mask from Scream (1996)

Thank you.

Korean Blog