Hello, artenauta! We are going to tell you about one of the most famous paintings in the world that, because of its symbolism and use of color, leaves no one indifferent. Have you ever wondered what the author wanted to convey to us through this work? Today we are going to tell you the meaning of the painting The Scream by Edvard Munch.
First of all, we would like to briefly review the life and work of the author, in order to better understand his style and composition:
Edvard Munch
- He is considered by many to be the greatest Norwegian painter of all time.
- He was one of the precursors of the expressionist movement.
- It is believed that events such as the death of his mother and sister when he was a child, as well as his father’s religious obsessions, strongly marked his work.
- The most frequent themes of his works were anguish, fear, loneliness, illness and death.
- Christian Krohg, Norwegian naturalist painter, was Edvard Munch’s teacher.
- His oeuvre includes more than 1,000 paintings, 4,500 drawings and watercolors and 15,400 engravings.
The cry
- It is considered one of the most famous paintings in history.
- It is the title of four pictures painted by the author: the most famous one is exhibited in the National Gallery of Norway (Oslo). Two other versions can be found in the Munch Museum (Oslo) and the third belongs to a private collection.
- The most famous version was painted in 1893.
- Two of the versions of the painting have suffered thefts (and subsequent recovery by the police) in recent years.
- In 2012 it was auctioned for $119.9 million, the highest price obtained to date for the sale of a painting at auction.
- The scream represents, in the foreground, an androgynous figure with a strong feeling of anguish. A path with fences, two figures in the background and an abundance of warm colors and semi-dark light.
Meaning of Munch's Scream
Although the main objective of the painting is the representation of the vital anguish that torments modern man, the author himself explained how the inspiration for this work came to him as a result of a disturbing event he experienced during an afternoon stroll with friends: “I was walking along a path with two friends – the sun went down – suddenly the sky turned blood red, I stopped and leaned against a fence dead tired – blood and tongues of flame stalked over the dark blue of the fjord and the city – my friends continued and I stood still, trembling with anxiety, I felt an infinite scream piercing through nature.”
We hope this approach to The Scream has been interesting for you and we invite you to do some research, looking for information about this and other works of famous painters such as the
curiosities about Monet’s Water Lilies.
You will be surprised with the stories you can find behind many of them.
To become a true artist, learning everything you need to know to paint like a professional, we recommend you to visit our Online Painting Course.
