The Scream is one of the most well-known pictures in the history of art, and has become a popular icon of our time. The figure in the picture has been used in many different contexts, and appears in everything from political posters to horror films. It even has its own emoji. The motif Edvard Munch created 130 years ago has now become a symbol we use to convey emotions.
From despair to a scream
In 1892 Munch painted the picture Sick Mood at Sunset. Despair, a motif that bears many similarities to The Scream. The colours, the format and size, the landscape and background figures – all are the same. Nevertheless, The Scream is radically different, because the main figure has been changed. In the first picture we see a clearly defined male figure wearing a hat and coat. In The Scream this figure has become a mysterious presence that is difficult to define. Is the figure we see a woman or a man? Is it wearing a black coat, or a dress? Is it a skull or a face we are looking at? Why doesn’t the figure have hair? These difficult and indistinct features of the figure make The Scream into a visual enigma.
A ground-breaking artwork
The Scream is both simple and complex. It is complex because it lends itself to so many different interpretations. Its simplicity has to do with the actual execution of the picture. We know that Munch drew sketches and worked with the motif over a long period of time, but the painting technique and lack of detail give the impression that it was painted quickly and spontaneously. This approach, along with the vibrant, non-realistic colours, signified a new way of creating art. The Scream marks a decisive point in art history where form and content are closely interrelated and are meant to express the same subject matter. The work is a key turning point from the symbolism movement in art to the expressionism of the 1900s.
An image of anxiety
Before painting The Scream, Munch wrote a text that relates to the content of the picture:
I was walking along the road with two
friends – then the sun went {I went} down
Suddenly the sky turned blood-red
– and I felt
a breath of melancholy
– an exhausting pain
under my heart – I paused, leaning against the fence, tired to death – above the blue-black fjord and city there was blood ‹in› tongues of fire
My friends went on and I stood
there trembling
with anxiety –
and I felt that a gre{a}t infinit\e/ scre{a}m went through nature
(1892, MM T 2367)
The landscape we see in the picture is recognisable through this description, and shows the Kristiania fjord (Oslo fjord) seen from Ekeberg hill. Two men, who are referred to as two friends in the poem, are walking in the background on the left. The Scream is often interpreted as a universal expression of anxiety and alienation, which is the subject of the poem he wrote.
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