The painting "The Scream" by Edvard Munch is the attraction of despair. Munch's "Scream"

It is difficult to find a picture that would be as well known as The Scream. More than a century has passed since its inception, and there is still no consensus on what is depicted on it. Moreover, over the years, the picture only acquires mystical mysteries. For example, there is a horror story that the Scream is cursed: after contact with it, dozens of people fell ill, fell into severe depression, or died suddenly. What is hidden in Munch's "Scream"?

Edvard Munch. Scream. 1893
Cardboard, oil, tempera, pastel. 91 × ​​73.5 cm. National Gallery, Oslo
Wikimedia Commons

Plot

People are standing on the bridge under the crimson sky. In the landscape, one can guess the view of the fjord from the Ekeberg hill in Oslo (which during Munch was called Christiania).

The essence of the central image remains a mystery. The artist did not seek to draw this figure. Munch writes the sound itself, the state. See how the lines that paint the landscape and the flashy are coordinated. They seem to be in resonance. Man hears the cry of nature and reacts to it, and nature cannot but respond to the state of man. In fact, this is the idea of ​​universal unity.

In nature, you will not find a single perfectly straight line. And Munch paints the environment exactly in the form in which it was created. “I paint not what I see, but what I saw,” he said.

About what formed the basis of the "Scream", the artist himself wrote in his diary: "I was walking along the path with two friends - the sun was setting - suddenly the sky turned blood red, I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned against the fence - I looked on the blood and flames over the bluish-black fjord and the city - my friends went on, and I stood, trembling with excitement, feeling the endless scream piercing nature.

What did the area depicted in the picture look like?

The image that was born in Munch is a synthesis of what he felt at that time, those moods that hovered in Norway, childhood fears, endless depression and loneliness.

It is possible that the crimson color of the sky is not an exaggeration. Munch could actually see such a color. In 1883, a powerful volcanic eruption occurred in Krakatoa. A huge amount of ash was thrown into the atmosphere, which is why for several years especially colorful, fiery sunsets were observed around the world.

On the pages of his diary in the entry "Nice 01/22/1892", Munch describes the source of his inspiration as follows:

"I was walking along the path with two friends - the sun was setting - suddenly the sky turned blood red, I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned against the fence - I looked at the blood and flames over the bluish-black fjord and the city - my friends went on, and I stood trembling with excitement, feeling the endless cry piercing nature.

It is quite possible that the scream that Munch heard was not some kind of idea or hallucination. Near Ekeberg were the largest slaughterhouse in Oslo and a psychiatric clinic. The cries of the slaughtered animals, along with the cries of the mentally ill, were unbearable.

There are 40 copies of Munch's The Scream.

Context

The Scream is part of a cycle of paintings about love, life and death...

There are about forty "Screams" in total. Four of them are pictorial paintings (they appeared between 1893 and 1910), the rest are graphic works (including prints and drawings). The picture was conceived as part of the "frieze" - a series about love, life and death.

The Scream was first presented to the public at the Berlin exhibition in December 1893. Of course, no one understood anything, criticism took up arms against Munch, and even the police had to be invited to the gallery so that angry people would not start a pogrom.

frieze fragment

The public wondered how such a pleasant young man could paint such horrible pictures. However, it was this work that became programmatic for expressionism. She brought piercing loneliness and despair to art. We, who know what the world is waiting for in the 20th century, willy-nilly want to call Munch a soothsayer.

The fate of the artist

Munch's family was extremely religious. His mother died of tuberculosis when Edward was 5 years old. Later, Sophie's older sister died of the same disease. Munch himself miraculously escaped the same fate.

Edward did not graduate from the Royal Christiania School of Design - he did not agree with the principles of academicism and naturalism, which could not be changed. Munch began an independent search for means of expressing his ideas. The first scandal was not long in coming. Critics literally ridiculed the painting "Sick Girl", in which the artist painted the dying Sophie. The canvas was called a miscarriage, a defect. However, Munch did not try to convey the situation in which his sister was dying, it was more important for him to transfer his impressions, pain and loss to the canvas.

"Madonna" (1894−1895). This painting is called the embodiment of Munch's art.
Edvard Munch. Madonna. 1894
Canvas, oil. 90.5 × 70.5 cm. Munch Museum, Oslo
Wikimedia Commons

In the second half of the 1880s, the artist became a regular at the meetings of Bohemia Christiania, a community of philosophers, writers, musicians, and artists that existed until the death of its main inspirer, the anarchist writer Hans Jaeger. To the clink of glasses, they discussed politics, social problems, the moral crisis of society, ideas about sexual behavior and taboos.

In the early 1890s, Munch spent a lot of time in France, where, of course, he saw the work of Van Gogh and Gauguin. And the influence that they had on him is noticeable, including in The Scream: bright colors (which Munch did not have before), images of flowing lines, a clearer drawing.

In Munch's workshop, 1902

In the future, the artist's style becomes more and more sharp, sweeping, the subject, mood changes, the anguish that was in his early works goes away. Gradually, they began to get used to Munch's art, criticism was no longer so categorical, the artist even had wealthy patrons.

For the last 15 years, the artist has hardly worked - due to a hemorrhage in the vitreous body of his right eye, he began to have vision problems. And when Norway was occupied by Nazi Germany in 1940, Munch again fell into anxiety, this time for life and property that the Nazis could confiscate. He died in 1944.

Munch's paintings were called miscarriages and degenerate art

Versions of "Scream" and their location

Munch created four versions of The Scream using different techniques:

* The Munch Museum presents one of two oil paintings and one pastel.

* The most famous, second version is exhibited in the National Museum of Norway (ill. on the right). It is painted in oils.

* The only version of the plot that remains in private hands is in pastel. It belonged to Norwegian billionaire Petter Olsen, who put it up for auction on May 2, 2012. As a result, the painting was sold to Leon Black for 119 million 922 thousand 500 dollars, which at that time represented a record for works of art.

"Scream" has repeatedly become the target of intruders:

* In 1994, the painting was stolen from the National Gallery. A few months later, she was returned to her place.

* In 2004, "The Scream" and another famous work of the artist "Madonna" were stolen from the Munch Museum. Both paintings were returned in 2006. They suffered some damage and were shown again in May 2008 after restoration.

Edvard Munch at the end of the 19th century greatly excited the artistic community with his works, which went far beyond the generally accepted norms of that time. He abandoned the naturalism that reigned in Kaiser's Germany in favor of a symbol and emotion, causing censure from many accomplished artists and admiration for young creators who at all times yearn for something new. As time judged, Munch's innovation was not a desire to stand out, but a manifestation of a unique style, the peak of which was the painting "The Scream".

Drawing for Munch was not just a craft or hobby - it was his passion, a real illness, from which he categorically did not want to be cured. The artist described the state of creation as intoxication, and sobriety, in this context, did not attract him at all. As a result, he created a huge number of works: engravings, drawings and paintings. The productivity of the artist is truly amazing - he wrote more than a thousand oil paintings alone.

But the philosophy in the master's paintings can sometimes be difficult to discern behind a storm of emotions: instead of real objects, his canvases are full of contrasting spots, the space is blurred, and the faces are more like mournful masks, which are symbols of human grief. In this manner, a series of his works “The Frieze of Life” was made, to which the artist devoted about thirty years of his life. It is to this series that "Scream" belongs, to which "Despair" precedes.

The history of the creation of the picture was described by the author himself: “ I was walking along the road with two comrades. The sun was setting. The sky suddenly turned blood red, and I felt an explosion of melancholy, gnawing pain under my heart. I stopped and leaned against the fence, dead tired. Above the blue-black fjord and the city lay blood and flames. My friends continued to walk, and I was left behind, trembling with fear, and I heard an endless scream piercing nature».

It was "The Scream" that became the most famous work of Edvard Munch. Why did the faceless silhouette, uttering a cry of despair, resonate with the mass consciousness? The answer lies in the question itself. Almost every more or less sensitive person, burdened with intellect and consciousness, living in society, periodically has to experience the same despair, fear, a feeling of powerlessness. The picture is the apogee of mental generalization. Take a close look at the tense mask, silently screaming from unbearable psychological stress against the background of a blurry, but no less intense background.

Take a look and listen to your feelings. Abstract from the name of the author, the momentary moment and the very meaning of what is happening. Feel all the horror that the artist put into his silent scream. Let the associations draw parallels with your own experience, expose your soul, tender and quivering, languishing from meaninglessness and futility, tired and disappointed, raped by someone else's rudeness and indifference. Throw it all out through the visual image of the scream and leave it on the canvas. Once and for all.

The painting "The Scream", created presumably at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, has gained incredible popularity in our time. She has been repeatedly parodied, created comics and reimagined sketches. The image from the picture was used in advertising, cartoons, videos. The idea of ​​a mask from the horror movie "Scream" was inspired by this particular painting. There are legends about the curse of the picture - there are many mysterious diseases, deaths, mysterious cases around it.

Was this painting painted by Vincent van Gogh? The painting "The Scream" was originally called "The Cry of Nature".

Painter Van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853 in the village of Grotto (Netherlands). In addition to him, the pastor's family had five more children. And only one of them, the younger brother Theo, was of great importance in the life of Vincent. Theo financed his brother all his life, he alone believed in his genius.

Van Gogh, according to family tradition, tried himself as a commission agent in an art and trading company, was a preacher and teacher. Having failed in these fields, he turned to art.

While studying painting, Van Gogh copied the paintings of masters of past centuries. He studied the intricacies of the craft on the example of brilliant artists. At the same time, he created his own unique author's style.

Introduction to painting

By the age of 30, Van Gogh devoted himself entirely to painting. In landscapes, still lifes, portraits, the artist was looking for his color and light. He often worked in nature - under the hot sun or in the piercing wind. Van Gogh rapidly deteriorated. He was treated several times in a psychiatric clinic. The artist understood that the frequent attacks and hallucinations indicate an imminent death.

He furiously sets to work, depicting a bright and beautiful world ("Harvest", "Fishing Boats in Sainte-Marie", "La Crot Valley"). In periods of melancholy and loneliness, a completely different mood of the paintings appears (“At the Gates of Eternity”, “Night Cafe in Arles”, “Prisoners' Walk”). When you look at these canvases, you get the feeling that the painting “The Scream” was created in the same condition. Van Gogh is often considered the author of this masterpiece. Is this statement correct?

His only sale during his lifetime was the painting Red Vineyards at Arles. Remaining misunderstood by his contemporaries, the artist contemplates suicide. On July 29, 1890, he shot himself in the chest with a pistol. Van Gogh always understood that his time was limited. He worked with the last of his strength, devoting himself to art. The museum in Amsterdam, dedicated to the work of the insane artist, annually gathers crowds of tourists and fans.

Realizing his genius, was Van Gogh happy in life? The picture "Scream" is full of ringing horror and hopelessness. But who is the author of this painting?

Starry night painting

One of the most Van Gogh, in addition to fields and sunflowers, is the painting "Starry Night". The fact is known that it was written in the psychiatric hospital of Saint-Remy. During periods of improved health, the artist was allowed to paint.

Brother Theo made sure that Vincent was given a separate room for painting. Van Gogh depicted local landscapes and flowers from nature. But Starry Night was written from memory. The movements of the stars are depicted in broad strokes - the luminous lights seem to spin in a spiral in a bizarre dance. Thin branches of cypress stretch to the sky. And under this mysterious firmament, the village froze, surrounded by the blue of the sky.

What did Van Gogh want to say with his painting? The painting "Scream" resembles the style of "Starry Night". The same internal anxiety - the insignificance of man before the power of nature. A sense of misfortune, impending despair peep through the cosmic immensity of being.

Reality or altered state?

Among art historians and psychiatrists, there is still debate about how truthfully Vincent van Gogh saw reality. "The Scream" is an unusual picture. It clearly points to the deformation of the artist's consciousness.

The late painting of Van Gogh is the fruit of research into the work of the mentally ill. Psychiatrists, far from the evolution of art, call the artist's painting the fruit of an altered consciousness. They argue that reality in his canvases passes through the prism of an unhealthy state. The unusual style indicates the pathology of the mental state.

Opinion of art critics

Art historians, on the contrary, agree that Van Gogh's painting is a manifestation of genius. The unique style, based on the classics and impressionism, indicates the individualism of the artist. Between bouts of madness and hallucinations, Van Gogh showed amazing accuracy in setting artistic goals and objectives. His self-control emphasizes the clarity of thinking at the moment of creation.

A means for creating an imaginary world - this is how Van Gogh sees his painting. The painting "The Scream" is permeated with a gloomy foreboding of trouble. The rattling haze to the scream of horror in the foreground is a truly mystical premonition of a future catastrophe.

History of the ear

Paul Gauguin was a friend of Van Gogh. In 1888 they decided to spend the winter together in Arles. The temper of both painters, their violent quarrels led to trouble. In a half-mad state, Vincent cut off his ear after the scandal with Gauguin - this is one of the versions of the artist's act.

According to another version, the joint drinking of alcohol and heated arguments about painting led to a small brawl between friends. Maybe it was Gauguin cut off. There is a variant that not all of the artist's ear was cut off, but only the lobe.

There is another version according to which Van Gogh suffered from otitis media. Severe pain, joint drinking of alcohol with Gauguin and their quarrels inspired Vincent to this way of getting rid of suffering.

The legend of a prostitute, over which two comrades argued, ended in an unpleasant ear incident. This version of the development of events appealed to creative people. It was this version of the conflict that formed the basis of the book and film about Van Gogh.

The most banal version of what happened: after a stormy feast the next morning, Vincent accidentally cut off his ear. While shaving, a strong tremor of the hands led to an absurd incident that became the hallmark of the artist.

Is there a connection between this event and the image of the painting "The Scream"? The protagonist of the picture, clutching his ears with his hands, desperately screams in pain. Such a characterization of Van Gogh's painting "The Scream" is impossible for the simple reason that he is not its author.

mysterious picture

The painting "The Scream" was painted between 1893 and 1910. The blazing glow of the sky, the terrible despair in the eyes of the protagonist, the unreality of everything that was happening - the author was in a state of complete spiritual confusion. Is it possible to assume that the painting "The Scream" is Van Gogh?

Some features of this mysterious canvas are noticed. When a person "interacts" with a picture, he suddenly starts having problems. Some people's relatives died, someone went crazy or fell into a long-term depression.

Most often, museum workers became victims of the painting. They most of all had to contact with the canvas. There is a tragic story about an employee who accidentally dropped a painting. The onset of severe pain in the head drove the unfortunate man to suicide. Another museum worker touched the painting for the purity of the experiment. In the evening, he was burned alive in his own house. How true are these stories? It is not known for certain. But the negative energy of the picture is felt even in reproductions.

Given alcoholism and mental illness, it can be assumed that the painting "The Scream" is Van Gogh. The photo of the canvas conveys a wave of hopelessness to the viewer. But the true author is another artist.

Description of the artwork «Scream»

The canvas depicts a real area. It is located in the city of Oslo, next to the clinic for the mentally ill. In it, the sister of the author of the picture was treated for an illness.

The screaming figure on the canvas evokes different associations. She is compared to a skeleton, a mummy or an embryo. The protagonist of the picture screams from the despair that seized him. Pain and fear emanates from the undulating lines of the landscape. They, as if in a haze, rattle on a high note, giving rise to dissonance with the cry of the hero. The painting "The Scream" is permeated with a polytonal chord. Van Gogh (description, emotions, general style of the masterpiece) is not without reason considered the author of the canvas. Apparently, his state of mind was similar to that in which Edvard Munch painted his picture.

Who wrote "The Scream"?

Edvard Munch - Norwegian painter, theater artist, graphic artist, art theorist is the author of "The Scream". It is possible that the general style of the canvas was inspired by the work of the Dutch artist. Cosmic vibrations in the background seem to be drawn by Van Gogh. The painting "The Scream" is in the National Gallery and the Munch Museum (Oslo, Norway).

Edvard Munch created several versions of the masterpiece in a desire to get rid of his painful sensation. The bridge on the canvas, two figures in the background - the only reality of the chaos into which the main character plunges. The indifference of these figures emphasizes the complete loneliness of a person before fear and longing.

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

A distinctive feature of 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 the Norwegian National Museum of 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.

If you want to have high-quality reproduction of a painting by Edvard Munch in your collection, then order a reproduction of the painting "The Scream" on canvas. The unique technology of printing reproductions on canvas reproduces the original colors, thanks to the use of European quality inks with fade protection. Canvas, as the basis for a reproduction of Munch's "The Scream", will convey the natural structure of the artistic canvas, and your reproduction will look like a real work of art. All reproductions are framed on a special gallery stretcher, which finally gives the reproduction a resemblance to the original work of art. Order a reproduction of Edvard Munch's painting on canvas, and we guarantee you the best color reproduction, cotton canvas and wooden stretcher that professional art galleries use.

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 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 with a different technique. 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. Over the past decade, only three works of art have managed to break the $100 million barrier - 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 flames. 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 by 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 result of the artist's mental disorder. There is evidence that Munch suffered from manic-depressive psychosis, as he had a hard time experiencing the death of his sister in early childhood.

“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.