story 008 · art · edvard munch, 1893
someone wrote on the scream, in pencil.
the short, written out
someone wrote on the scream. in pencil.
up here, in the sky, it says: “can only have been painted by a madman.”
in 1904, a critic blamed “a tactless hand”, and most experts came to agree: a vandal.
then norway’s national museum photographed it in infrared, and compared the handwriting with munch’s own, letter by letter.
in 2021, the museum announced the answer: munch wrote it himself.
why? in 1895, the scream was first shown in norway. at a public debate, a medical student questioned munch’s sanity.
his sister had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital, and he feared illness ran in the family.
the museum thinks that’s when he picked up a pencil, and wrote that verdict across his own sky.
he never painted over it.
it’s still there today, in oslo: small, faint, and easy to miss.
the print that goes with it
pastel scribble
loops and zigzags crowding the top left of a dripping wash, pale teal, orange and plum
no. 473 · 8″×10″ or 16″×20″ · from $20.00 · see the print
sources
- the national museum of norway, press release of 22 february 2021 and “could only have been painted by a madman!”; its catalogue entries for the scream and self-portrait with cigarette (edvard munch i nasjonalmuseet, 2022)
- munch’s own notes, emunch.no (mm t 2703, mm n 37, mm t 2367)
- aftenposten, 9 november 1895; den 17de mai, 23 november 1895 (national library of norway)
- the art newspaper, 22 february 2021
pictures
- edvard munch, the scream (1893) and self-portrait with cigarette (1895), photos by børre høstland / the national museum, oslo (cc by 4.0), and the museum’s infrared photographs of the scream (børre høstland / the national museum)
- edvard munch, note for the scream (1892, mm t 2367), photo by munch, oslo (cc by 4.0)
- the students’ association’s notice, aftenposten, 9 november 1895 (national library of norway, public domain). the scan’s colour is matched to the museum’s standard photograph; the infrared photographs are laid in register over it
every sentence of the short was checked against its sources before it went out.
