Everyone knows the meaning of the word “scream”. A person hears these sounds throughout his life: the cry of a newborn, the cry of the boss, the cry of the soul. But with what is this word associated with people of art?
Scream is not only a sharp and loud exclamation made by humans and animals, it is also a famous and mystical picture of the great Norwegian impressionist Edward Munch.
Description of the picture
There are several options for this work: two are made with oil, one with pastel and one with lithography.
The picture shows a real existing bridge near Oslo. This place cannot be called pleasant: there was a massacre, and next to it - a madhouse, where the artist’s sister was kept for some time. The bridge itself was a favorite place for suicides.
A strange figure of a man or a mummy covering his ears with his hands, as if trying to get rid of an unbearable sound. As Munk himself wrote, it was a cry of nature, of all the space around it.
The overwhelming impression of the picture is compounded by the blood-red sunset over the fjord. In the year of writing the canvas, the sky over Norway was painted in such an uncharacteristic color due to the volcanic ash from the Krakatau eruption.
“Scream” is despair, pain, own impotence, those deep feelings that many cannot convey in words. Edward Munch managed to transform the whole burden of human existence in his oppressive and disturbing image.
