Munch's Scream

The passage of time has turned The Scream in all a cultural icon as it has also happened with the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci and many other great masterpieces. The Scream is the title taken by four versions painted by Edvard Munch, the most famous being the one in the National Gallery in Oslo (Norway) completed around 1893. Next, in this lesson from a TEACHER we will try to give you a brief and concise Expert Commentary on Munch's Scream, undoubtedly one of the best known expressionist works of the twentieth century.

Munch's Scream is considered one of the great masterpieces of expressionism. Now what is expressionism? It is one of the most important artistic manifestations of the 20th century with which the artists wanted to express those inner emotions difficult to capture because... how would you represent despair, grief, melancholy???

That is what the expressionists reflected in their paintings through violent deformations, certain exaggerations in the expression of the characters, through the use of vivid and intense colors... that was his way of transmitting which was the personal situation in which he found himself, not only individually but also from the society.

Let us transfer all this we have said to Munch's painting. Don't you think it becomes palpable? Yes, right? And it is that Edvard Munch's objective was none other than that of express your feeling of loneliness and anguish.

To understand this there is nothing more than to know a little about the life of said author and that is that Munch from a very young age was orphaned of a mother; His father, who was a doctor, was in charge of taking care of the most humble families and, since he did not have someone to take care of his son, he took him with him, so since he was a child he was surrounded by poverty, illness and usually by dramatic situations... Also shortly after his mother passed away, his two sisters died, so death is something that was very current in the life of this artist. It is said of him that he was not born to be happy.

Munch detailed us in a diary written in 1892: “he was there, trembling with fear. And I felt a strong and infinite scream piercing nature”. Therefore, with The Scream It goes without saying that he knew how to communicate through this painting all the events that marked him throughout his life, which made him express that visceral cry.

In the previous section we talked a little about the theme and the artist, however, now we are going to see which ones It was the formal and technical aspects that he resorted to and that contributed to expressing that concern in the viewer.

In the first place, what we see is an almost cadaverous figure in which, according to the sources, they say that inspired by a Peruvian mummy that Munch saw at a universal exhibition in Paris. She appears terrified, holding her hands to her ears, her mouth completely disjointed as well as her eyes.

The scream emission It seems to be present in the nature that surrounds it with those undulating traces, behind it, two silhouettes of people on the bridge go unnoticed and oblivious to the anguish of man.

Regarding the composition, we see sinuous contours applied on the central figure, the fjord, of which he also mentions in the diary, creating that feeling of dynamism and agitation. On the contrary, the straight lines of the railing, as well as those of the floor of the bridge, transmit us stillness and passivity.

It is a painting where the predominance of color over the line, colors that are also flat, arbitrary, that fill the painting with strong contrasts, between the warm range with those orange and reddish tones... and the cold range with the blue of the sea. The technique is oil on canvas.

As to the light is absolutely unnatural, there is no specific focus where the light comes from, therefore, there are no play of light and shadow. The vanishing point, referring to perspective, is clearly visible, since it is located on that diagonal that leads us to the end of the bridge.

Finally, never better than with a curiosity and that is that, in the 1893 version, after the painting there is what would be the first attempt to carry out the work, although unfinished and with those most important colors already highlighted. You can also see how the main character was more in the center of the composition.