The Scream
Artist: Edvard Munch
Year: 1893
Type; Oil,
tempera, and pastel on cardboard
Dimensions;
91 cm
× 73.5 cm (36 in × 28.9 in)
The Scream is the
popular name given to each of four versions of a composition, created as both
paintings and pastels, by the Expressionist artist Edvard Munch between 1893
and 1910. Der Schrei der Natur is the title Munch gave to these works, all of
which show a figure with an agonized expression against a landscape with a
tumultuous orange sky. Arthur Lubow has described The Scream as "an icon
of modern art, a Mona Lisa for our time.
Edvard Munch created
the four versions in various media. The National Gallery, Oslo, holds one of
two painted versions (1893, shown at right). The Munch Museum holds the other
painted version (1910, see gallery) and a pastel version from 1893. These three
versions have not traveled for years.
The fourth version
(pastel, 1895) was sold for $119,922,600 at Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern
art auction on 2 May 2012 to financier Leon Black, the highest nominal price
paid for a painting at auction. The painting was on display in the Museum of
Modern Art in New York from October 2012 to April 2013.
Also in 1895, Munch
created a lithograph stone of the image. Of the lithograph prints produced by
Munch, several examples survive. Only approximately four dozen prints were made
before the printer resurfaced the original stone in Munch's absence.
The Scream has been the
target of several high profile art thefts. In 1994, the version in the National
Gallery was stolen. It was recovered several months later. In 2004, both The
Scream and Madonna were stolen from the Munch Museum, and recovered two years
later.
Munch translated The Scream into a lithograph in 1895.The Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (1863-1944)
did several versions of "The Scream," an alter image for himself
(more on this later), in oil, pastel, and lithograph between 1893 and 1910.
This my favorite version because the stark contrast of the black-and-white
lines mirrors the disconnect between the man's mood and the peaceful
surroundings.
This version, executed in 1895 in pastel on cardboard, was sold
for more than US$120 million in 2012, thereby making it the most expensive painting
sold at auction.
This version, executed in 1910 in tempera on cardboard, was
stolen from the Munch Museum in 2004, and recovered in 2007.
A haunting
rendition of a hairless figure on a bridge under a yellow-orange sky, The
Scream has captured the popular imagination since the time of its making. The
image was originally conceived by Munch as part of his epic Frieze of Life
series, which explored the progression of modern life by focusing on the themes
of love, angst, and death. Especially concerned with the expressive
representation of emotions and personal relationships, Munch was associated
with the international development of Symbolism during the 1890s and recognized
as a precursor of 20th-century Expressionism.
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