World Paintings

The only privately-owned version of Edvard Munch’s classic masterpiece The Scream has fetched a record-breaking 119.9 million US dollars (£74 million) at auction. The famous image, which features a haunted figure in front of a red backdrop, surpassed estimates to become the most expensive work of art to be sold at auction following the sale in New York. It is one of four versions created by the Norwegian expressionist painter.
The famous picture was created in 1885 and is the only version with a frame hand-painted by Munch which includes a poem explaining his inspiration for the piece. It is also the only version in which one of the two figures in the background turns to look outward onto the cityscape.

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Edvard Munch

Self-portrait I, 1895 - 1896, lithography on paper, 58.3 x 43 cm, MoMA.

Edvard Munch

Kiss by the Window, 1892, oil on canvas, 73 x 92 cm, The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo. 

Munch’s art offers some of the world’s most effective images of emotional states — a veritable international sign language of the soul. The raw blue tones of Kiss by the Window are full of sensible eroticism. The only illumination is from windows across the way. The couple has retreated behind the curtain and Munch has cropped off much of their bodies. His brushstrokes merge their bodies. Only a small section of the woman’s neck is even visible, she is overwhelmed, almost consumed, by her lover’s embrace. Did Munch mean for us to feel like voyeurs watching this private, intense moment?

Edvard Munch

Ashes, 1894, oil on canvas, 120.5 x 141 cm, The National Museum of Art, Architecture, and Design, Oslo.

Ashes is an example of an attempt to produce the most convincing images of states of mind and psychological conditions. The painting depicts the end of a love affair, with the man in despair and the woman indifferent. The title Ashes refers to the burned-out log that runs along the picture’s edge, signifying the death of love.

Edvard Munch

The Scream, 1893 - 1910, tempera and pastel on board, 91 x 73.5 cm, Nasjonalgalleriet Oslo Norway.

The Scream is the title of expressionist paintings and prints in a series by the Norwegian artist, showing an agonized figure against a blood red sky. The scene was identified as being the view from a road overlooking Oslo, the Oslofjord and Hovedøya, from the hill of Ekeberg. At the time of painting the work, Munch’s manic depressive sister Laura Catherine was interned in the mental hospital at the foot of Ekeberg. The environment of The Scream is often compared to that of which an individual suffering from Depersonalization disorder experiences, such a feeling of distortion of the environment and one’s self.

The Scream has been the target of several high-profile art thefts.