"The Scream" by Munch. About the most emotional picture in the world

Scream - Edvard Munch. 1893. Cardboard, oil, tempera, pastel. 91x73.5

expressionist pattern, painting "Scream", like its many variants, is still one of the most mysterious masterpieces world painting. Many critics believe that the plot of the picture is the fruit of a sick fantasy of a mentally unhealthy person. Someone sees in the work a premonition of an ecological catastrophe, someone solves the question of what kind of mummy inspired the author to do this work. Behind all the philosophies, the main thing disappears - the emotions that this picture evokes, the atmosphere that it conveys and the idea that each viewer can formulate for himself independently.

What did the author represent? What meaning did he put into his ambiguous work? What did you want to say to the world? The answers to these questions may be different, but everyone agrees on one common opinion - "scream" makes the viewer plunge into difficult thoughts about himself and modern life.

Analysis of the painting "The Scream"

The red, fiery hot sky covered the cold fjord, which, in turn, gives rise to a fantastic shadow, similar to a certain sea ​​monster. Tension distorts space, lines break, colors don't match, perspective is destroyed.

Only the bridge on which the heroes of the picture stand is indestructibly even. It is opposed to the chaos into which the world is plunging. A bridge is a barrier separating man from nature. Protected by civilization, people have forgotten how to feel, see and hear. Two indifferent figures in the distance, not reacting in any way to what is happening around, only emphasize the tragedy of the plot.

Placed in the center of the composition, the figure desperately screaming man, attracts the attention of the viewer in the first place. On a face impersonal to the primitive, despair and horror, bordering on madness, are read. The author managed to convey the most powerful human emotions with stingy means. In the eyes of suffering, a wide-open mouth makes the scream itself piercing and really palpable. Raised hands covering the ears speak of a reflex desire of a person to run away from himself, to stop this attack of fear and hopelessness.

The loneliness of the protagonist, his fragility and vulnerability, fill the whole work with a special tragedy and energy.

The author uses a complex technique, in one work using and oil paints and tempera. At the same time, the coloring of the work is simple, even stingy. In fact, two colors - red and blue, as well as a mixture of these two colors - and create all the work. Intricate, unrealistic curves of lines in the image of the central figure and nature fill the composition with energy and drama.

The viewer decides for himself the question: what comes first in the work - a cry or a deformation. What is at the heart of the work? Perhaps, the despair and horror manifested in the cry and gave rise to deformation around, responding to human emotions, nature reacts in a similar way. You can also see the "shout" in the deformation.

Historical information about the painting

Surprisingly, this work of Munch was stolen several times by attackers. And it's not so much the colossal cost of "Scream". The point is the unique and inexplicable impact of this work on the viewer. The picture is emotionally rich and capable of evoking strong emotions. On the other hand, in the most unknown way, having created his masterpiece at the very end of the 19th century, the author was able to predict the tragedy and abundance of catastrophes in the twentieth century.

It should be added that it was this work that inspired many film directors and screenwriters to create films of various kinds. However, none of the films ever came close in terms of tragedy and emotionality to Edvard Munch's masterpiece.

Painting is a child Edvard Munch, which is one of the most famous works art in history, attracting a wide audience today. There are actually four different original versions of The Scream. The canvas was created using various artistic media, including oil paints, tempera and pastel. The Scream is part of a larger art collection, a series that the artist himself calls "The Frieze of Life".

Out of time, the creature depicted in The Scream is a genderless human with a pale face, standing next to a fence, looking expansively in a chaotic environment. What captures him so much that he sees in front of him on the other side of the picture? The man is screaming, his mouth is wide open, with his hands pressed at his sides to his face. You can see the scream reflected in the intense blood red, orange, blue and black color scheme background. Two people are standing, their backs turned, not far from the screaming figure, with black silhouettes at the very edge of our visual scene. In the distance there is the shadow of a small town, almost completely lost in the swirling sky.

The National Gallery in Oslo, Norway owns one of the "Scream" series of paintings.

It is believed that just one pastel version of The Scream will sell for around $80 million, making it one of the most valuable works of art, the most ever auctioned in history.

Inspiration for writing "The Scream"

Man Norwegian descent, Edvard Munch, studied at the Academy in Oslo with the famous Norwegian artist Christian Krogh. He created the first version of The Scream in 1893, when he was about 30 years old, and made a fourth and final version"Scream" in 1910. He described himself in a book written in 1900 as almost going insane, like his sister Laura, who was put in mental asylum during this period of time.

Personally, he discussed pushing emotions to extreme actions. Munch is going through a very dark moment in his life during that period.

The Scream painting was based on a real, actual location, located on Ekeberg Hill in Norway, on the way to the safety fences. Faint cityscape convey the view of Oslo and the Oslo Fjord.

At the bottom of the Eckeberg hill there was a lunatic asylum where Edvard Munch's sister was placed for treatment, and there was also a slaughterhouse nearby. Some people describe that in those days, you could actually hear the screams of animals being killed, as well as the screams of those suffering from mental disorders with a psycho. hospitals. Under these conditions, Edvard Munch was most likely inspired by the screams, which, combined with his personal inner tragedy and confusion, gave rise to the idea for creating The Scream. Edvard Munch wrote in his diary that his inspiration for the painting came while he was walking at sunset with two friends, when he began to feel very deeply tired both physically and mentally. He stopped to rest, leaning against the railing. He felt anxiety and experienced a cry that seemed to go through all of nature. The rest is left to an endless spectrum of interpretations.

The famous painting by Edvard Munch "The Scream" today for the first time appeared before the eyes of Londoners. For a long time painting by a Norwegian expressionist was in private collection compatriot Edvard Munch, businessman Petter Olsen, whose father was the artist's friend, neighbor and customer. Interestingly, using different artistic technique, Munch wrote four options paintings called "Scream".

Distinctive feature The painting "The Scream", which is presented in London, is the original frame in which the work is placed. The frame was painted by Edvard Munch himself, which is confirmed by the author's inscription explaining the plot of the picture: "My friends went on, I was left behind, trembling with anxiety, I felt the great Cry of Nature." In Oslo, at the Edvard Munch Museum, there are two more versions of The Scream - one of them is made in pastel and the other in oil. The fourth version of the painting is in Norwegian National Museum art, architecture and design. "The Scream", by Olsen, is the first painting in the series, painted in pastels, and differs from the other three paintings in an unusually bright color palette. Edvard Munch's painting "The Scream" embodies the isolation of a person, desperate loneliness, the loss of the meaning of life. The tension of the scene gives a dramatic contrast between the lonely figure in the foreground and strangers in the distance, who are busy with themselves.

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Why are they screaming? Yes, even with a twisted face, clutching his head, covering his ears? From fear, from hopelessness, from despair. This is what Munch wanted to convey in his picture. The distorted figure on it is the embodiment of suffering. The setting sun inspired him for this picture, painting the sky in bloody colors. The red, fiery sky over the black city gave Munch the feeling of a scream piercing everything around.

It should be added that in his work he depicted the scream more than once (there are other versions of the "Scream"). But the cry of nature was really a reflection of his own inner cry. It all ended with treatment in the clinic (there is evidence that Munch suffered from manic-depressive psychosis).

But as for the bloody sky, he did not see anything here, there is no metaphor in these words. According to astronomers, Krakatoa erupted in 1883. For several months, the volcano threw out huge clouds of dust, which caused the "bloody" sunsets in Europe.

And there is also a completely fantastic version of this picture. Its supporters believe that Munch had a chance to make contact with extraterrestrial intelligence (apparently, the figure in the picture reminded someone of an alien). Here are his impressions of this contact, he portrayed.

The most famous canvas that was painted by the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch is “The Scream”: the history of the creation of the painting is as significant as its name. This is one of the most famous paintings in a world that even inspired the famous 1983 thriller film Scream of the same name.

The description of the painting "The Scream" by various art historians often includes a wide variety of assumptions about what the author wanted to express with his extremely unusual plot. And so far experts have not been able to completely agree on opinions. But there are several facts about the history of the painting, as well as fairly reliable assumptions about the details of the image.

"Scream" - what inspired the artist?

The painting by Edvard Munch undeniably expresses the extreme desperation of one character that is depicted on it. According to some reports, the artist was a victim of mental illness. He is credited with manic-depressive psychosis. Reproducing the plot depicted on the most recognizable canvas was his obsession, which he was able to get rid of only after undergoing treatment in the clinic. But before that, the artist managed to create 40 copies of the picture, experiencing an unhealthy need to draw this image again and again.

The canvas depicts a creature that is difficult to confidently call a person, it is also difficult to say exactly what gender this creature belongs to. He has a pear-shaped head, which he clasps with his hands, trying to cover his ears from his own scream. The grimace of a scream distorts the character's face, which reflects pain and anguish. And it is impossible to say for sure whether these emotions are a cause or a consequence of a scream, because in the character's pose one can clearly see the tension with which he closes his ears trying to hide from his own scream.

Initially, the canvas was called "The Cry of Nature." In this context, the assumption seems quite plausible that the central figure of the canvas symbolizes the author himself, who is trying to protect himself from the cry of nature, closing his ears from the existing or imaginary noise that torments him.

According to one of the researchers of Munch's work - Robert Rosenblum - the prototype of the character depicted by the artist on foreground became a mummy. Edvard Munch saw a mummy that was on display at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1889. The same exhibit of the exhibition is considered an object that struck the imagination of Munch's friend Paul Gauguin.

"Scream": the plot of the picture

The author applied expressionism to express the complexity and severity of the character's experiences. Blurred lines seem to vibrate, they are fuzzy, flowing one into another. It seems that the person looking at the picture has a slightly blurry vision. This effect completely immerses the viewer in the plot: the experiences of the character. The viewer himself plunges into the fog of despair and grief that the central figure experiences, begins to experience the tension from which the hero suffers, as can be seen in the photo of Edvard Munch's painting "The Scream".

What makes the hero of the picture scream, or what cries of nature he himself hears, can be guessed from the image of the landscape, against which the central character is depicted. In addition to fuzzy lines that convey the tension of the hero and his experiences, you can find that the central figure and the image of the hero are in resonance. The lines that depict them practically merge into a single whole, it is almost impossible to detect the boundaries between them.

Context

"The Scream" is part of a cycle of paintings by Edvard Munch about life, death, love. Therefore, some experts attribute a mystical meaning to the central figure depicted in the picture: supposedly, this is the artist’s own vision of the image of death. But in this case, even more inexplicable is why the character is in that despair. The same cycle of paintings included the artist's canvases, on which central characters changed, but depicted against the background of the same landscape with a blood-purple sunset.

At the first exhibition, where the canvas was presented to the public as part of a frieze, the audience did not accept it. The painting was met with protests, which the gallery owners were only able to resolve with the help of the police, as a frustrated crowd was ready to riot.

It is believed by mystically inclined art lovers that the "Scream" is damn picture. Such thoughts are suggested by a number of coincidences, during which people who came into contact with the canvas faced misfortunes, failures, and began to get sick.

It is difficult for fans of the artist’s work who are interested in where the painting “The Scream” is located, because the painting is presented in more than 40 copies. But its first version, written in 1893, is kept in National Gallery in Oslo.

Category

The Scream is a group of Expressionist paintings by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch depicting a despairing figure against a blood red sky. The landscape in the background is a view of the Oslo Fjord from Ekeberg Hill, in the city of Oslo, Norway.

Munch created four versions of The Scream, each performed different techniques. The Munch Museum presents one of two oil paintings.

Sold at Sotheby's in New York, the Scream painting was made in pastel. Previously, it belonged to the son of billionaire Thomas Olsen and was never shown to the general public. This version of The Scream is one of the most recognizable works of art in history, on a level with "Sunflowers" by Van Gogh or "Black Square" by Malevich.

Munch himself sold this painting to Olsen at the end of the 19th century, a Norwegian shipowner who lived next door was a friend and patron of the artist. It is reported that the painting is still placed in a simple frame, which Edvard Munch himself created for her.

At the auction, it was sold in 12 minutes and set an absolute record for the cost of a piece of art ever sold - $19.1 million. Behind last decade only three works of art managed to take the barrier of 100 million dollars - two paintings by Picasso and one sculpture by Alberto Giacometti. The Scream broke the record set by Pablo Picasso's Nude, Green Leaves and Bust, which sold in 2010 for $106.5 million.

Munch himself explained how the idea for this painting was born. “I was walking along the road with my friends. The sun was setting. The sky turned blood red. I was seized with sadness. I stood mortally tired against the background of dark blue. The fjord and the city hung in fiery tongues flame. I got separated from my friends. Trembling with fear, I heard the cry of nature,” engraved on the frame of the sold lot by Munch.

The reddish sky may have been caused by the eruption of the Krakatau volcano in 1883. Volcanic ash tinted the skies reddish in the eastern United States, Europe, and Asia from November 1883 to February 1884.

The figure in the foreground probably depicts the artist himself, not screaming, but on the contrary, protecting himself from the cry of nature. In this sense, the posture in which he portrays himself may be a reflex reaction of a person trying to escape from a strong noise, real or imagined.

"The Scream" refers to the collective, the unconscious. Whatever your nationality, creed or age, you are sure to have experienced the same existential horror at least once, especially in an age of violence and self-destruction, when everyone is fighting for survival,” said David Norman, co-chairman of the board of directors of Sotheby, on the eve of the auction. s.

He believes that Munch's canvas was a prophetic work that predicted the 20th century with its two world wars, the Holocaust, environmental disasters and nuclear weapons.

Three other versions of The Scream have been stolen from museums more than once, but they have invariably been returned to their owners.

There is an opinion that the paintings are cursed. Mysticism, according to art critic and Munch specialist Alexander Prufrock, is confirmed real stories. Dozens of people who came into contact with the canvas in one way or another fell ill, quarreled with loved ones, fell into severe depression or died suddenly. All this created a bad reputation for the picture, and visitors to the museum in Oslo looked at it with apprehension.

Once a museum employee accidentally dropped the canvas. After some time, he began to have terrible headaches, seizures became stronger and, in the end, he committed suicide.

There is also a version that this picture is partly the fruit of mental disorder artist. There is evidence that Munch suffered from manic-depressive psychosis, as he had a hard time in early childhood sister's death.

“Munch relentlessly reproduced The Scream, as if in this way trying to get rid of him, until he underwent treatment in the clinic. With the victory over psychosis, he lost the ability (or the need) to do this, ”the Encyclopedia of Art website says.

“Illness, madness and death are black angels who stood guard over my cradle and accompanied me all my life,” Munch wrote about himself.