The Scream

Edvard Munch, 1895

Pastel on board

36 x 29 in.

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Affixed to the artist-made frame that houses The Scream is an engraved plaque that reads.

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“I was walking along the road with two friends – the sun was setting – suddenly the sky turned blood red – I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence – there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city – my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety – and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature.”

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The Scream is a pastel on board by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch created in 1895. The artwork is one of four different versions of the Scream, two in paint and two in pastel created by Munch depicting a distorted, anguished figure set against the backdrop of a swirling red and yellow sky.

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While experts agree that, on the evening in question, the artist was walking up Ekeberg Hill in Oslo, debate continues over the cause of the blood red sky. Some believe Munch had observed the atmospheric effects of the volcanic explosion of Krakatoa (an event that had occurred 10 years prior), others believe it was the setting sun reflecting off the nacreous clouds often seen at that latitude and others claim that sky is a psychological expression the torment of his sister being committed to a nearby asylum.

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The pastel was initially owned by Jewish Art Collector Hugo Simon who, under threat from the Nazis, fled Germany in 1937 selling the work to Norwegain ship owner Thomas Olsen, once a neighbor of Munch, who had amassed a collection of over 30 of the artist's works. During World War II Olsen hid these paintings in a hay barn in central Norway to protect it from the Nazis.

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On May 2nd 2012, the painting was sold by Petter Olsen, son of Thomas, at Sotheby’s in London for a then record price of $119.9 million to American businessman Leon Black. The painting remains in his private collection and was last seen publicly at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2013.

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