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The ScreamThe Scream Digital Image © Bridgeman Art Library © 2013 The Munch Museum/TheMunch-Ellingsen Group/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

The Scream

Edvard Munch. 1893 C.E. Tempera and pastels on cardboard.

Curator Note

"The universal icon of modern anxiety and existential dread. Munch depicts a figure on a bridge, clutching its face and screaming as the sky turns blood red. The landscape dissolves into swaying lines that echo the sound of the scream. It is a subjective, psychological reality, not an objective one."

Form

  • Garish, clashing colors (orange, blue).
  • Undulating, curvilinear lines (Art Nouveau influence).
  • Distorted, skeletal figure.
  • Steep diagonal perspective of the bridge.
  • Rough application of tempera and pastel.

Function

  • To express the artist's inner overwhelming anxiety.
  • To visualize the "scream of nature".
  • To break with Realism entirely.
  • To explore the themes of life, death, and fear.
  • Symbolist manifesto.

Content

  • The Androgynous figure: universal human/skull-like.
  • The Red Sky: "blood and tongues of fire" (volcanic dust?).
  • Two figures in background: indifferent to the suffering.
  • The bridge: a precipice/transition.
  • The scream is felt rather than heard.

Context

  • Based on a personal experience Munch had while walking with friends.
  • Krakatoa eruption might have caused the red skies.
  • Symbolism/Expressionism precursors.
  • Munch suffered from trauma and illness.
  • Existentialism: the isolation of the individual.