The Scream is a famous painting created by the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch that is often associated with the Symbolist and Expressionist movements.

The painting depicts a figure (Munch himself, as it happens) standing on a bridge with a turbulent and colourful sky in the background. The figure is shown in a state of extreme distress, with a distorted face and hands on the sides of the head.

There is actually not one but five versions of The Scream: three paintings, a pastel and a lithograph created between 1893 and 1917, and is part of a series of paintings entitled the “Frieze of Life”.

The first painted version is in the collection of the National Gallery of Norway in Oslo, and includes a barely visible pencil inscription "Kan kun være malet af en gal Mand!" ("could only have been painted by a madman”), an assertion that scholars have discovered were scrawled by the artist himself.

Many historians interpret the painting as a representation of the artist's inner turmoil and anxiety, possibly related to his experiences with mental illness.

Indeed, Munch was confronted with death at a very early age: his mother died of tuberculosis when he was only five years old, and he lost one of his sisters to the same disease when he was only 13. Shortly afterwards, another of his sisters suffered from severe depression and was committed for life, while his brother died suddenly of pneumonia only a few months after his marriage. A rough trot.

So what does the painting itself represent? An excerpt from Munch’s diary gives us some insight. On 22 January 1892, he wrote these lines:

“I was walking along the road with two friends – the sun was setting – I felt a wave of sadness – The sky suddenly turned blood-red

I stopped, leaned against the fence tired to death – gazed out over the flaming clouds like blood and swords – the blue-black fjord and city – My friends walked on – I stood there quaking with angst – and I felt as though a vast, endless scream passed through nature.”

So, contrary to popular belief, the scream does not come from the figure but from nature. The figure appears frightened and covers his ears to blur the deafening scream.

According to some scientists, his reference to the “endless scream passed through nature” might conceivably be linked to the violent eruption in 1883 of Krakatoa, an Indonesian volcano. That eruption caused a deafening noise, the loudest heard on Earth. The seismic tremors are said to have travelled seven times around the globe with a sound so powerful that it was heard 4,800 km away. It also deeply tinted sunset skies red in parts of the Western hemisphere for months during 1883 and 1884, about a decade before Munch painted The Scream. Maybe, there’s a link there. We’ll never know for sure.

The Scream has had a significant impact on popular culture.

The poster from the 1990 Chris Columbus film Home Alone was inspired by both The Scream and, as it happens, how the actor Macauley Culkin reacted to the scene where he is directed to scream due to cologne burning his face.

The mask worn by the primary antagonists of the Scream series of horror movies (starting in 1996) is based on the painting.

And, as you might imagine, there are lots of visual parodies of The Scream out there. We've included a few for you.

The Scream is often cited as a symbol of existential angst and modern anxiety. Its enduring popularity and cultural impact make it a subject of ongoing analysis and interpretation by art historians, psychologists, and philosophers.

Story Idea: Bonnie Siegler
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References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scream
https://culturezvous.com/en/edvard-munch-the-scream-analysis-masterpiece/
https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/norwegian-museum-solves-the-mystery-of-a-famous-modern-painting/5790127.html
https://www.cbr.com/home-alone-iconic-image-improvisation/

Images

1. The Scream emoji against the painting's background
2. The Scream by Edvard Munch, 1893
3. Portrait of Edvard Munch at 26 years old in 1889
4. The “Frieze of Life”: five versions of The Scream
5. Munch diary note from Munch Museum. Dated 22/1/1892. The Violet Journal.
6. Lithograph from 1888 showing the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883
7. Macauley Culkin mugs for the Home Alone poster, 1990
8. The mask from Scream (1996) was inspired by The Scream. Film props displayed at ExpoSYFY, San Sebastián, Spain.
9. Waldo screams. Credit: brechtvandenbroucke.blogspot.com
10. Homer screams. Credit: Samer Hijazi via Flickr
11. Lego guy screams. Credit: Marco Pece via Flickr