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The Scream

Edvard Munch's painting The Scream (1893) captures a moment of existential dread inspired by a sunset that evoked feelings of melancholy in the artist. The use of distorted forms and shocking colors creates a sense of physical force behind the scream, while the flatness and swirling lines enhance the emotional impact. The central figure, with its skull-like face, may have been influenced by a Peruvian mummy that Munch encountered, contributing to the painting's iconic status.

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14 views1 page

The Scream

Edvard Munch's painting The Scream (1893) captures a moment of existential dread inspired by a sunset that evoked feelings of melancholy in the artist. The use of distorted forms and shocking colors creates a sense of physical force behind the scream, while the flatness and swirling lines enhance the emotional impact. The central figure, with its skull-like face, may have been influenced by a Peruvian mummy that Munch encountered, contributing to the painting's iconic status.

Uploaded by

baljaa 1011
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The Scream

The Norwegian artist Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream (1893) was painted at the end of
nineteenth century during a unique transitional period in art history. First of all, Munch once
said: “I was walking along the road with two of my friends. The sun set – the sky became a
bloody red. And I felt a touch of melancholy – I stood still, dead tired – over the blue-black fjord
and city hung blood and tongues of fire. My friends walked on – I stayed behind – trembling
with fright – I felt the great scream in nature.” So, Munch used distorted form and extreme,
arhibirary colors to express a neurotic reaction. The “bloody red”, pinks, and oranges are
intended to be shocking, and to contrast with dark forms of the bridge. One of the things that
strikes me about The Scream is the way in which its so insitently flat, with the swirling forms of
the main figure and the background made up one or two barely differentiated tones of color.
Those curved lines radiating out from the main figure are powerful, and give us the sense that
the inner scream portrayed here has an almost physical force. But the mix of paint and pastel
crayon emphasizes the texture of the painting, too. And the organic nature of most of the
shapes constrasts intensely with sharp perspectival rush of space caused by the bridge. The
shadowy silhouetted figures behind the screaming figure are featureless, and pushed to the
edge of the composition, making them both liminal and ominous. Finally, there’s that amazing,
iconic central figure. What inspired Munch to simplify that figure and paint such a skull-like
face? One theory is that he saw a Peruvian mummy on display in Paris with Paul Gauguin and
was inspired to paint this figure. This mummy, which was posed with an eternally open mouth,
may have had a great effect on Munch.

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