The Artist Who Created the Scream

Norwegian artist Edvard Munch is best known for his iconic pre-Expressionist painting “The Scream”.

Munch was born in 1863 in Loten, Norway. In his creative artwork, he established a kind of free-flowing psychological theme style that was very much all his own. His painting “The Scream” is one of his most recognized works of art and was painted in 1893. The painting was sold in 2012 on the auction block at Sotheby’s in New York City for over $119 million which set a new record.

Family Tragedy and the Study of Art

Munch was the second of five children. The family moved to Oslo in 1864 where four years later his mother died of tuberculosis. This set off a series of tragedies in the Munch family. In 1877 sister Sophie died of tuberculosis at the age of 15, another sister was institutionalized for mental illness, and his brother died of pneumonia at the age of 30.

Munch enrolled in a technical college to study engineering in 1879 but never finished his studies. His passion for art took over and he attended the Royal School of Art and Design. After three years of studying art Munch received a scholarship and went to Paris, France. Back in Oslo, he continued to paint and his artwork “The Sick Child” was finished in 1886. This painting was considered to be his break from the realist style. The artwork depicted what he felt about his sister’s death almost nine years earlier.

Living in France

After his father died Munch lived in France on scholarships from 1889 to 1892. This was his most productive period in art. He began a series of paintings called the “Frieze of Life” which consisted of 22 works of art for a 1902 Berlin exhibition. “Despair”, “Melancholy”, “Anxiety”, “Jealousy”, and “The Scream” were some of the titles of Munch's paintings.

The many emotions of Munch were on display and the collection became a huge success. The world began to take notice of this artist. This brought a ray of sun into his life which otherwise was darkened by excessive drinking, family misfortune, and mental distress.

Demons in Life

Success does not always bring happiness and so it was for Munch that he had to struggle with his inner demons. In the 1900s his drinking got way out of hand and in 1908 he began hearing voices and suffered from paralysis on one side. After collapsing he checked into a private sanitarium. He was ready to rejoin the world in 1909.

Munch went to live in a country house in Ekely, Norway which was not far from Oslo. There he lived in isolation and began painting landscapes. At one time he nearly succumbed to influenza but survived to live for some decades more dying at his country home on January 23, 1944. He painted right up to the moment of his demise and at this time would depict his deteriorating condition.

Best-Known Paintings

The Sick Child is the title of a six-painting group depicting the same subject. It was created 1885-1886. His older sister Johanne Sophie is depicted shortly before she passed on with her mother sobbing by the bedside as the girl suffers from tuberculosis. It can be seen at the National Gallery in Oslo, Norway.

Anxiety has a slight resemblance to his iconic painting The Scream. This painting was created in 1894. You see the same similar figures of agony and a striking red sky. The painting was meant to express the artist's feelings of despair and heartbreak.

Also created in 1894 Madonna is the title given to several versions of the same painting. It depicts a half-naked woman wearing a red hat. Three versions of this painting can be seen at the following museums the Munch Museum, the National Gallery in Oslo, Norway, and the Kunsthalle in Hamburg, Germany.

The Dance of Life was created 1899-1900. This painting was part of a project known as The Frieze of Life. It depicts women at various stages of their lives. Among them are a virgin dressed all in white on the left and a widow in black on the right.