The Scream Analysis

The Scream is the popular name for a composition originally entitled Der Schrei der Natur (The Scream of Nature) created by Edvard Munch between 1893 and 1910. The Scream has two painted versions and two in pastel. The 1893 pastel version is an oil, tempera, pastel and crayon on cardboard with dimensions of 91 cm x 73.5 cm. The foreground shows a human figure, bald and sexless, with hands clasping the sides of the head. The figure is screaming with a mouth wide open, as well as eyes. The features of the figure are not discernible. No eyebrows, no nose line. It is clothed in dark clothing, possibly black. The middle ground shows a railing in red, on what appears to be a wooden bridge overlooking a river. Two other figures in black are off to

Colors used are black, brown, red, orange and some white. The background shows a body of water, likely a fjord (a narrow inlet of sea with steep sides or cliffs), typical in Norway. The sky is made up of long dashes of red and orange. Whitish and blackish lines spread through the sky, water and land, indicating sharp, rapid movements in the composition. The work has three human figures: the first figure at the center and two other vague-looking dark figures to the left, walking away behind the first figure.

Long strokes of lines are used in the work. The human figure itself is composed of vertical wavy lines. Long thick, wavy horizontal lines make up the sky, punctuated by thin dashes of white and blue. The water and the ground are best described as erratic. The wooden floor of the bridge has thin straight lines of brown, with hints of black and white. In contrast to the rest of the work, the bridge railing stands as the best defined feature of the work. It is straight and thick with heavy black and watery reds. Most of the work features organic, ill-defined shapes, which can be observed in the fjord that seems to cover most of the scenery. Few shapes are well-defined, such as the long railings and the bridge. Depth is

His point of view did not seem to take any stand. Rather, it recreated his experience during that night. There were a lot of negative influences (but influences nonetheless) that deeply affected the work. Munch dealt with death for much of his life. His mother died of tuberculosis when he was five years old. His favorite sister died of the same disease when he was 14. He also contracted the disease and recalled spitting blood during his childhood. These experiences would scar him for life. Meanwhile, his father, an underpaid military physician, exhibited a neurotic sentimentality. As a result, Munch felt that death surrounded him, and was “constantly advancing on him.” He was influenced by van Gogh (who also struggled with insanity) and Gauguin, who both veered away from the style of naturalism of the previous generation. Gauguin summed it up by saying: “Art was human work and not an imitation of