The Scream is a further development of the picture Syk stemning ved solnedgang. Fortvilelse (Sick Mood at Sunset. Despair) from 1892 (Woll M 264), and the stages that led to the final result can be traced in a number of sketches (see e.g. Eggum 1990). The two paintings coincide closely in terms of colours, format and compo- sition. The simplified landscape is recognisable as a representation of the Kristi- aniafjord as seen from Ekeberg. Two men can be seen strolling in the background to the left. In his private notes about the picture, Munch describes them as two friends. The main difference between The Scream and the earlier Despair is the transformation of the main protagonist, from a clearly defined male figure to a schematic human face that is hard to categorise. A further significant change is that Munch has turned the figure to face the viewer front on. The effect of this modification is striking, in that it makes the image confrontational and immedi- ately communicative. No less groundbreaking was the intimate linkage between content and form. Here Munch shows himself to be a pioneering experimental artist pushing for the dissolution of the artistic conventions and the aesthetic of the day. This unity between form and content makes The Scream a pivotal work in the evolution from symbolism to the expressionist art of the 20th century.
Before painting The Scream, Munch articulated the picture's theme in a prose poem in one of his notebooks:
I was walking along the road with two friends -- the sun was setting -- sud- denly the sky turned blood red -- I paused and leaned on the fence in utter exhaustion -- there was 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. (emunch.no: 1892, MM.T.2367)
The Scream exists in two painted versions. Over the years there has been consi- derable debate about which was painted first, but it is now widely agreed that the National Museum's version was painted in 1893, and that of the Munch Museum no earlier than 1910 (Woll M 896). The National Museum's version has been signed twice, with one signature superimposed on the other, and there is a rudimentary sketch version on the back. In addition to the two paintings and this sketch, two further versions exist in pastels. One of these lacks a signature and year, but has also been dated to 1893 (Woll M 332). The other is signed and dated 1895 (Woll M 327). The latter has a small panel on the lower part of the frame inscribed with a variation on the above-quoted prose poem. Munch also produced a lithographic version in black and white in 1895.
The National Museum's Scream was shown for the first time at Galerie Unter den Linden in Berlin in the year it was painted, at that point with the title *Verzweiflung *(Despair). The first book about Munch's art, with contributions from four art critics and edited by Stanisław Przybyszewski, was published in 1894. Here the picture is mentioned for the first time in a scholarly text. Przybyszewski discusses *The Scream *(Die Verzweiflung) as part of the early "Love Series", describing it as "... the final tableau from a terrible battle between the brain and sex, from which the latter has emerged victorious" (Przybyszewski 1894). While this interpretation does not accord with the way the picture is generally understood today, it has to be seen in terms of the context in which the work was presented in its early years. In time, The Scream came to be seen as a universal expression of anxiety and alienation. The first thorough academic study of the work in its own right was that of Reinhold Heller (Heller 1973 ). Since then, the picture has been written about on countless occasions. Notable publications in recent years include the Munch Museum's 2008 theme-based analysis of the various versions, and the exhaustive book with the title *Skrik. Historien om et bilde *(The Scream. The Story of a Picture) (Tøjner and Gundersen 2013).
The picture's iconic status has grown steadily from the 1970s to the present. In the academic literature about Munch from the first half of the 20th century, The *Scream * is reproduced only relatively rarely, but analysis of the painting's exhibition history clearly shows that both Munch himself, and later the National Gallery, regarded the work as central to the artist's development. *The Scream * featured in most of Munch's solo exhibitions through until 1910, the year Olaf Schou purchased and immediately gifted the work to the museum. There was an early understanding among Norwegian art experts that the picture represented something unique and that it was important to secure Norwegian ownership. With the exception of periods when it was on loan to other museums, *The Scream * remained on display in the National Gallery from the time it entered the collection. The painting was loaned out frequently during the 1960s and 1970s, but as its fame grew, the museum chose to be more restrictive in this regard, out of consideration both for its own visitors and for the picture itself. The last time it was loaned out was for an exhibition in Japan in 1993. In 1994 it was stolen but returned to the museum the same year. At the top left of the painting is a barely legible inscription in pencil that reads: "Kan kun være malet af en gal Mand!" ("Can only be painted by a madman!"). It has been claimed that this was written by Munch himself (Heller 1973; Næss 2004; Stenseth 2004). By 2008, most Munch researchers were ready to accept that it was probably added by someone else. This conjecture was based on a contemporary review of Munch's 1904 exhibition in Copenhagen in which the reviewer wrote: "It is on the bright red clouds of this picture that a tactless hand has written in pencil: 'Can only be painted by a madman'" (Woll 2008, 316). However, a recent study using an infrared camera and graphological analysis (National Museum and Munch Museum 2020) confirms the earlier hypothesis, that the inscription was added by the artist himself.
The painting was proposed for purchase at the National Gallery as early as 1901 (NG minutes of committee meeting, 18.10.1901), but didn't enter the collection before it was gifted to the museum by Olaf Schou in 1910. It is clear that the purchasing committee was interested in acquiring several Munch pictures at the earlier point in time, and *The Scream *was high on the wish list. The artist Gerhard Munthe, then a member of the committee, wrote to Munch in 1901: "Finally, we wish to hear from you what you would want for the picture 'The Scream' or the other one you call 'Anxiety'" (emunch.no: 14 October 1901, MM K 720). In the minutes from a committee meeting later that month, it is noted that Munch has "... agreed not to take 'The Scream' abroad and also to grant right of first refusal for a sale of the picture to either the National Gallery or Mr Olaf Schou" (NG minutes of committee meeting, 29.10.1901). In other words, at that point in time the artist was either unwilling to sell the picture or asking too high a price. Despite the promise, mentioned in the minutes, not to take the picture abroad, Munch included the work in exhibitions in Berlin, Leipzig, Copenhagen, and Prague during the period 1901--1910.
Vibeke Waallann Hansen
The text was first published in Edvard Munch in the National Museum. A comprehensive overview (Oslo: National Museum, 2022).
