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In 1895, Munch wrote a poem based on his experiences and wrote it in the corner of one of his “Scream” paintings. “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.”
There are also many theories about other inspirations, such as the location of the painting being close to an insane asylum, the volcanic eruption of Krakatoa, and the expression of a famous Peruvian mummy that was being exhibited in a Parisian museum.
Versions of The Scream have been stolen many times, but all have, luckily, been recovered. One famous theft happened in 1994, where two men took it, leaving only a note thanking the museum for its poor security. Luckily, a couple of months later it was found undamaged.
On May 2nd, 2012, one version was sold in an auction. It had previously been owned by a Norwegian man named Petter Olsen, and the bidding started at 40 million dollars. Twelve minutes later, Leon Black, an American businessman, gave the last offer. The painting cost 120 million dollars, and it made The Scream the most expensive painting ever sold at an open auction. The previous record for the most expensive was one of Picasso’s paintings, which was just over 106 million dollars.
But what about the painter? Do you know anything about him?
Edvard Munch was born in Norway in 1863. He had a very tough childhood, since his mother and favorite sister died before he was fourteen. After that, his father and his aunt Karen raised him and his three other siblings. One of his favorite authors growing up was Edgar Allen Poe, which influenced his future works greatly. He started painting in his early teens, and continued to do so for the rest of his life. The Munch museum is the largest grouping of his work, and it contains 1,100 paintings, 4,500 drawings, and almost 20 thousand prints.
You can see here two more versions of The Scream. The one on the left is made with pastels, unlike the one you saw before, which was painted. This is the one that was auctioned, and is now owned by Leon Black. The one on the right is a lithograph that was also made by Edvard Munch. Litographs are a way of printing, which is basically carving large pieces of wood, stone, or metal and using them as stamps. Munch made many of these prints, and many are on exhibition today.
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