GIGNIMAZ: Edvard Munch Paintings

"The Scream" (various media 1893-1910) - Edvard Munch - Painting Location: Oslo, Norway

Edvard Munch, 1893-1910


The Scream" - lithograph version from 1895

"The Scream" is one of the world's most recognizable works of art. It depicts a man in a private moment of anguished despair and anxiety, while the other people in the painting, perhaps his friends, seem blissfully unaware of the man's situation.

The Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (1863-1944) did several versions of "The Scream," an alter image for himself (more on this later), in oil, pastel,and litohgraph between 1893 and 1910. This my favorite version because the stark contrast of the black-and-white lines mirrors the disconnect between the man's mood and the peaceful surroundings.

The site of the painting is an overlook on the side of a road called "Valhallveien" on a hill above Oslo, Norway. The hill is known as Ekeberg Hill, Ekeberg being a neighborhood of Oslo just south of the city.
The winding road up to the park on the top of Ekeberg Hill was a popular place for citizens of Oslo to view the city. The hill and park were also popular places for Oslo artists to paint.

First, a little background: The Wikipedia entry for "The Scream" pretty well sum's up what I've read of Munch's inspiration:
"The original German title given to the work by Munch was Der Schrei der Natur (The Scream of Nature). The Norwegian word shrik is usually translated as scream but is (equivilent to) the English "shriek." Occasionally, the painting has been called The Cry.
In a page in his diary headed Nice 22.01.1892, Munch described his inspiration for the image:
I was walking along a path with two friends - the sun was setting - suddenly the sky turned blood red - I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence - there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and he city - my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety - and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature."

In addition, some scientists say there is a natural phenomenon that occasionally turns the sky over Oslo somewhat red, and that, is is thought, what gave Munch a panic attack.

Looking at the image of "The Scream," it always seemed to me that the man screaming was on a long pier or the side of a bridge, both thoughts having to do with water, perhaps because there is a large body of water on which masted ships are sailing behind him.

So my initial thought was that the location was either a seacoast town in Norway or along a large Norwegian lake, as the sailboats seemed pretty big.

Some other visual clues to the location: Besides the two tall-hatted men in the background, who seem oblivious to the situation, in the background you can also see the pointed steeple of a tall building, most likely a church, and to its right, some wavy lines suggestive of some other buildings.