The Scream (1893)

How to look at it

Start with the sky: long bands of red, orange and yellow that curve like the water below them. Follow those curves down into the blue fjord and the dark hills, then along the railing as it runs away to the left, where two friends keep walking. Only then come back to the figure in front, who seems to be listening to something rather than making a sound.

Why this one

The sky, not the figure. Munch wrote that he was walking with two friends at sunset when the sky turned red, and he felt a great scream pass through nature. The figure is hearing it, hands raised to its head.

A real place. The view is from the road on Ekeberg hill, looking over the Oslofjord toward the city then called Kristiania.

Looks fast, wasn't. Tempera and crayon on cardboard. Munch worked on the motif in sketches over a long period, but the loose handling and lack of detail make it look painted quickly and spontaneously.

A note in his own hand. Faint pencil in the red sky reads "could only have been painted by a madman". Infrared imaging and handwriting analysis by the National Museum and Munch Museum (2020, announced 2021) showed the writing is Munch's own.

This picture

Tempera and crayon on cardboard, 91 × 73.5 cm (35¾ × 29 in), 1893. This is the first painted version; Munch also made pastels and a lithograph of the motif. The board is in Oslo.

Fact gap. The figure isn't the one screaming, this 1893 board is one of several versions, and the "madman" line in the sky is in Munch's own hand. See what the record says.

Sizes vs the original

• 8×10: a small study for a desk or shelf, about a quarter of true size
• 16×20: a wall piece, a little over half of true size
• 20×25: our largest, about two thirds of true size and still sharp from the museum photograph

Paper & ship

Archival matte fine art paper, no bleed, 4:5 portrait proportion, a hair trimmed from the sides so the sky and the figure stay whole. Printed from the museum's photograph of the painting without remastering the color. Made to order, rolled in a tube. A black or natural oak frame both suit it.

Quick answers

Is the figure screaming? Munch described the scream as passing through nature. The figure, hands to its head, is hearing it.

Which version is this? The 1893 painting in tempera and crayon on cardboard, the first of the two painted versions.

Is this an original painting? No. It is an archival reproduction of the 1893 picture.

Is the image public domain? Yes. Munch died in 1944, so the painting is public domain. The photograph is by Børre Høstland for the National Museum of Norway, shared under CC BY 4.0. No museum endorses this shop.