The Scream

Edvard Munch's The Scream (Norwegian: Skrik) is one of the most recognizable images in art history — a universal symbol of modern anxiety and existential dread. Munch created four versions between 1893 and 1910: two paintings and two pastels, along with a lithograph stone from which dozens of prints were made. The image depicts a hairless, androgynous figure on a bridge, its hands pressed to its face, mouth open in a silent scream. Behind it, the sky swirls with orange and red, and the fjord below twists in unnatural curves. Munch described the experience that inspired it: "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 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." The figure in the painting is not screaming, Munch insisted — it is hearing the scream of nature itself. The swirling sky may have been inspired by the actual atmospheric effects of the 1883 Krakatoa eruption, which turned sunsets red across Europe for months. The Scream has been stolen twice — once in 1994 and again in 2004 — and recovered both times. One version bears a faint pencil inscription, only revealed in 2021, reading "Can only have been painted by a madman" — likely written by Munch himself in response to criticism.