Modern art is very versatile, but for inspiration it periodically returns to masterpieces like The Scream. Surely the poor Norwegian expressionist painter Edvard Munch had no idea that a century and a half later his work would be selling for millions.

What is the secret to the popularity of Edvard Munch’s almost careless sketch?
Not all canvases that claim to be masterpieces of world art are included in the treasury of masterpieces. There are paintings by Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali – it’s hard to even think of something like that. If we do not even talk about the expressive means of the avant-gardists or belonging to a direction in art, you can disagree with it, but it is impossible to forget.

Edvard Munch’s painting “The Scream” seems to make sense. The images are quite recognizable – the bridge in the suburbs of Oslo, the landscape of one of the fjords and two passersby against the background of a bloody sunset. And it’s not the floating figure himself, captured with a desperate cry, that delights. What is surprising is the feeling – inside themselves, everyone who has seen Munch’s creation hears the same piercing sound that conveys despair.

Once upon a time mankind spent a lot of effort on the invention of photography, cinema art, and telecommunications. Images and sound were transmitted in real time to every part of the world. But never have artists succeeded in rendering in tempera or pastel the emotional background and sound that could be heard within the human soul.

History of the Creation of the Scream Series
The art of the European Expressionists at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries was known for its depressive, decadent mood. The eminent Norwegian artist Edvard Munch went down in art history with a series of such paintings. Although you can not generalize all of his paintings, written in different periods of creativity, but it was the “Scream” has glorified his creator.

The first version of Skrik (in Norwegian) was called “Despair” . It was a pastel crayon drawing on cardboard, so it can hardly be called a “painting”. Recognizable plot can be traced in his other works from the series “Scream”:

A crimson-red sunset;
The log bridge on the left;
background landscape sketch of Oslo-fjord (view from Ekeberg Hill in Christiania);
the helpless figure of a sexless creature, more like an embryo with its mouth open and its hands attached to its cheeks or ears.

The atmosphere of melancholy and despair was recreated by the artist’s hand more than once – he worked on a whole series, thinking through “The Scream” down to the last detail.

As a result of this work by Edvard Munch the world became aware of 4 versions of the painting. The first iconic painting appeared in 1893.

Other versions of The Scream
Munch later returned to this drawing and reinterpreted its imagery and layout. The passers-by on the bridge and the central figure of “The Scream” changed. This is the form in which the world knows of Edvard Munch’s creation, as in the second version. To give more emotional coloring, the painter intensified the palette. There was a noticeable proportional outweighing of the red sunset, while there were fewer blue and yellowish autumnal hues.

Two years later, Munch again returned to rethink this image – something was bothering him. Perhaps the same experiences. But what is this sexless creature screaming about? The artist was tormented by memories of visiting his sister, who had died in the psychiatric hospital that had been built next to the abattoir on the outskirts of Oslo.

Expressionist biographers have described that Munch tried to heighten his experience of what he saw with the colors of a bloody sunset. This emotional outburst or “cry of the soul” was an experience from the mixed sounds of mad patients and animals given to death. He said that that animal scream of nature often echoed somewhere deep in his mind, looking for an exit.

Later this image was picked up and reinterpreted by other artists, filmmakers and cartoonists, “creators” of brands and advertisements, in the best traditions of Scream style and pop culture.