Edvard Munch The Scream Analysis

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ahar679 Essay Question 1
Edvard Munch 1864-1944
Edvard Munch was born and raised in Norway. His general moods that he painted were: love, loneliness, isolation, anxiety, fear and misery. Sickness and death were the main themes repeated in his works along with showing isolation of the individuals in their grief and loss. He lost his mother when he was five and then his sister and his brother, all to tuberculosis. Munch when he was an adult, had acute anxiety and depression and even had to be looked after at a institution.

‘The Scream’ 1893

Unfortunately, in 1908, Munch suffered a nervous breakdown, after which his portrait paintings had been changed by this traumatic experience. From the nervous breakdown came one of the most significant works of art. The Scream is the most important and well known work of art by Edvard Munch. Munch painted’The Scream’ the way it is, mainly due to his agoraphobia. The image was originally conceived by Munch to be a part of his epic Frieze of Life series, which explored the progression of modern life by focusing on the themes of love, angst, and death.1 Munch was trying to show expressive representation of emotions and personal relationships. This was due to Munch being associated with the international development of Symbolism during the 1890s and his recognition as a precursor of 20th-century Expressionism. 1
‘The visual subtlety and complexity of this composition can't be summed up in a cliché.’ The Scream is a portait of a painted soul. ‘We paint souls’ said Munch. It has come to be seen as a painting of the dilemma of modern man, a visualization of Nietzsche’s cry. God is dead, and we have nothing to replace him.’2 The complimentary colours of orange and blue naturally are calm but as a r...

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...od and sense of self. In Self-Portrait with a Cigarette, he portrayed himself almost being subsumed by a purple cloud of smoke, giving the impression that he had been smoking for some time. The smoke also heightens the expressive effect of his hand and face. He has painted yellow highlights on his face and hand as well as red veins popping on his hand giving him an overall sickly appearance. He puts so many different things in his paints, because of this the canvas almost has the appearance of a watercolor because the bottom of the it is dripping.
He almost looks startled, questioning, maybe a little surprised at himself or someone who is watching him. This is a very radical image because smoking a cigarette was not the typical way artists depicted themselves.
The self-portrait represents Munch as a Man directly engaging his viewer yet distanced from the world.

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