The Scream, Edward Munch

Edward Munch was born in 1863 in Hedmark, Norway. He was a Norway painter, printmaker, theater artist, and art theorist. Munch was one of the first representatives of Expressionism. His creation influenced the development of the XX-century art, especially Expressionism and Fauvism. Munch’s paintings are covered by the motives on death, lonely, and, at the same time, thirst for life.

According to Munch's will, after his death, all his works, stored at his house, were to be transferred to the city. His collection, which included several thousand paintings, drawings, engravings, and manuscripts, formed the basis for the collection of the future Munch Museum, which opened in 1963. A portrait of Munch is depicted on a banknote of Norwegian krone 1,000.

‘The Scream’ is a series of four pictures which was made between 1893 and 1910. They depict a screaming in despair human figure against the background of a blood-red sky. Munch described the source of his inspiration as:

“I was walking along the road with two friends – the sun was setting – suddenly the sky turned blood red – I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence – there were blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city – my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety – and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature.”

In 2003 a group of astronomers assumed that the blood-red sky which inspired the artist for these painting was caused by the eruption of the volcano Krakatoa in 1883.

The original German title given by Munch to his work was Der Schrei der Natur (“The Scream of Nature”). Occasionally, the painting also has been called ‘The Cry’.

Munch created four versions of ‘The Scream’ using different techniques. Two of them are in the Munch Museum. One is painted with oil and another with pastel. The third painting is in the Norway National Museum of Art. This one is the most famous and made with oil. And the last one is the only one which is in a private collection. It is made with pastel. In 2012 this painting was sold at Sotheby's in London for a record price of nearly US$120 million at auction on 2 May 2012.