Mysterious post on ‘The Scream’ was written by Edvard Munch himself, experts reveal

Barely visible in the upper left corner of one of the world’s most famous paintings are the words: “Could only have been painted by a madman!” For years curators and art historians have wondered who wrote it.

After decades of debate, experts confirmed this week that the artist himself, Edvard Munch, is responsible for the inscription on his most famous work, “The Scream”.

According to the National Museum of Norway, a Danish art critic first noticed the inscription during an exhibition in Copenhagen in 1904 – believing that a member of the public had written it down as an act of vandalism.

New infrared scans, which have no impact on the painting, showed Munch left the tiny phrase in the corner of the painting, written in pencil after the job was finished. The museum analyzed the handwriting and compared it to Munch’s diaries and letters of the time.

“The handwriting is definitely Munch’s,” said Mai Britt Guleng, curator at the National Museum. “The writing itself, as well as the events of 1895, when Munch first showed the painting in Norway, all point in the same direction.”

The museum has confirmed the origins of the inscription as the painting is undergoing extensive conservation in preparation for its installation in Oslo, Munch’s hometown, next year.

“Writing has always been visible to the naked eye, but it has been very difficult to interpret”, explains Thierry Ford, restorer of paintings at the National Museum. “Through a microscope you can see that the pencil lines are physically on top of the painting and were applied after the painting was finished.”

After “The Scream” debuted in 1895, Munch received strong criticism, including from the art community, and a medical student, Johan Scharffenberg, who questioned his mental state in a debate in which Munch was. present.

Henrik Grosch, then director of the Norwegian Museum of Decorative Arts and Design, wrote that Munch’s paintings showed that one can no longer “regard Munch as a serious man with a normal brain”.

For years, Munch has referred to the comments in his notes, clearly deeply hurt by the judgments.

“The theory is that Munch wrote this after hearing Scharffenberg’s judgment on his sanity sometime in 1895 or after,” Guleng said of the inscription. “It is reasonable to assume that he did so shortly after, during or after the exhibition.”

Expressionist painting is now widely celebrated in modern times, seen as an enduring representation of anxiety and dread. In his diary, Munch wrote that the painting was inspired by “a whiff of melancholy”.

Munch’s father and grandfather both suffered from depression, and his sister was admitted to Gaustad Psychiatric Hospital. Munch was hospitalized after a nervous breakdown in 1908.

“The inscription can be read as a tongue-in-cheek commentary, but at the same time as an expression of the artist’s vulnerability,” Guleng said. “Writing on the finished board shows that creating for Munch was an ongoing process.”

The painting, which is one of four, has rarely been seen since it was briefly stolen almost 20 years ago. In 2021, a pastel version sold for almost $ 120 million at a Sotheby’s auction in New York – a world record at the time.