Date: 1910
Original Medium: tempera on panel

Munch’s best-known work is The Scream, invoking emotions of intense anxiety and terror, with the subject’s skeletal, gaunt face in anguish. Munch’s original title for the work was Der Schrei der Natur (The Scream of Nature). The unnatural orange red to the sky adds a layer of discomfort to the painting, a feature which Munch said was inspired by a night where the setting sun turned the clouds a “blood red.” Some theorize this phenomenon occurs due to a volcanic burst nearby at the time, or it was a hallucination of Munch’s brought on by the commitment of his sister to an asylum.