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The Scream of Edvard Munch (1893) has an inscription in the upper left corner
Photo: Borre Hostland. Courtesy of the National Museum of Norway
A small inscription scribbled in pencil in the upper left corner of Munch’s The Scream (1893) was made by man himself, says a Norwegian scholar who reassessed the famous painting. Mai Britt Guleng, the curator of Old Masters and Modern Paintings at the National Museum of Norway in Oslo, says the graffiti Norwegian phrase – “Can only have been painted by a madman” – was added by Munch, rather than a vandal, around two years later.
The artist painted four versions of The Scream between 1893 and 1910; the version belonging to the national museum is the only one to bear the mysterious inscription. The painting, which symbolizes angst in the modern era, underwent conservation before being exhibited in the museum’s new building, which is due to open in Oslo next year.
Munch’s The Scream infrared scan shows the handwriting in more detail
Photo: Borre Hostland. Courtesy of the National Museum of Norway
As part of the research process, Guleng and his team, including curator Thierry Ford and research librarian Lasse Jacobsen, analyzed handwriting using infrared technology, looking at Munch’s journals and letters. for confirmation. “There are several reasons why I’m sure Munch wrote the line himself. First, the writing is the same. I compared word by word and letter by letter the sentence in The Scream with his handwriting in other notes and letters, ”says Guleng The art journal.
“My former colleagues at the Munch Museum, where I was the project manager for the digital archive of Munch’s writings, came to the same conclusion. If it was an act of vandalism by another person, the letter size would likely have been larger and the entire text more striking when standing in front of the artwork. Munch also didn’t paint on it to hide it.
The question of the identity of the writer has given rise to many theories over the years. Art historian Gerd Woll suggested, for example, in a Munch catalog raisonné published in 2008, that the phrase was the work of a vandal. Woll told the New York Times that Guleng’s new evidence “strongly indicates that Munch himself is the writer.”
Infrared photographs of The Scream were taken as part of the painting’s conservation work
Photo: Annar Bjorgli. Courtesy of the National Museum of Norway
“There has been strangely little attention to the inscription, given that it is one of the most studied and famous paintings in the world. In the Munch literature, some researchers have taken it for granted that it was written by Munch, but they have not discussed why and when. Since 2008, it is generally accepted that the writing was done by another person, without any discussion at all, ”says Guleng.
Munch may have added the phrase after being confronted with his mental health by medical student Johan Scharffenberg during a debate held at the Oslo Students’ Association in 1895. “The evening was organized because of negative reviews of Munch’s exhibition at Blomqvist Kunsthandel (Blomquvist Art Gallery) in Kristiania [later Oslo], that same fall, ”Guleng said. Munch, in a stir, could have added the inscription soon after.
Works by Edvard Munch will be on display in several galleries of the New National Museum alongside pieces by other artists, Guleng explains. “The Great Munch Room will be dedicated to his main works from the 1890s. In the Munch Room, the works will not be edited in strict chronological order, as most of them are from the same decade. Two works are exceptions: The sick child (1885-86) and Self-portrait with the Spanish Flu (1919) ”, she adds.
Covering an area of 55,000 m², the New National Museum on the Oslo waterfront will be the largest museum in Scandinavia. The cost of the new institution, delayed since 2020, is around NOK 6 billion ($ 700 million), according to the Norwegian press.
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