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unit 4
4. Extension to Art
The Scream
You have properly seen the painting shown above. It is known worldwide as one of the most famous paintings in the world, and is known as “the Mona Lisa of our time.” What you probably didn’t know is that the artist, Edvard Munch, didn’t make just one. Instead, he made five, and they are all in different places. All of these variations are different, since while others were made using pastels; some were painted using temperas, and some were made many years after the first.
The title of the collection, and of each individual piece, is commonly known as “The Scream.” Its formal name, however, is Der Schrei der Natur, which is German for “The Scream of Nature.” It is also sometimes known as “The Cry.”
The inspiration for The Scream was described in one of Munch’s diaries. In the entry for January 22, 1892, one year before the first painting was completed, he said: “One evening I was walking along a path, the city was on one side and the fjord [a water channel] below. I felt tired and ill. I stopped and looked out over the fjord—the sun was setting, and the clouds turning blood red. I sensed a scream passing through nature; it seemed to me that I heard the scream. I painted this picture, painted the clouds as actual blood. The color shrieked. This became The Scream.”
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