{"id":255,"date":"2021-02-23T14:56:54","date_gmt":"2021-02-23T06:56:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/?p=255"},"modified":"2021-02-26T09:05:47","modified_gmt":"2021-02-26T01:05:47","slug":"edvard-munch-authored-mysterious-writing-on-the-scream-new-analysis-reveals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/auction\/edvard-munch-authored-mysterious-writing-on-the-scream-new-analysis-reveals\/","title":{"rendered":"Edvard Munch Authored Mysterious Writing on \u2018The Scream,\u2019 New Analysis Reveals"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1904, a Danish critic took a close look at\u00a0Edvard Munch<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0The Scream<\/a><\/em>\u00a0and noticed something startling: faint handwriting in the far corner of the canvas that reads, \u201cCan only have been painted by a madman.\u201d Since then, the origins of the inscription baffled curators, some of whom assumed it was graffiti by a spectator or a jab at the famously anguished artist.<\/p>\n

But a new analysis of the painting by Norway\u2019s National Museum<\/a> has revealed the words were added by Munch himself.<\/p>\n

In the run-up to the inauguration of its renovated museum, now slated to open in Oslo in 2022, a new study conducted in collaboration with the Munch Museum has shed new light on the original 1893 version of\u00a0The Scream<\/em>. Using infrared technology to analyze the handwriting and compare it with Munch\u2019s diaries and letters, researchers determined that Munch was indeed the short text\u2019s author. He likely wrote the phrase in 1895 or shortly after that in response to particularly cutting criticism received after exhibiting\u00a0The Scream<\/em>\u00a0for the first time in his native Kristiania.<\/p>\n

Viewers were repulsed by the painting\u2019s palpable agony, and some openly speculated that the screaming figure at its furious center must be the artist. During a discussion of the work at the Students Association, a young medical student Johan Scharffenberg even claimed that the work proved that Munch was not of sound mind. Munch returned to the incident again and again in his letters and diaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that he we was very upset when critics of his work questioned his sanity and called his paintings a disgrace,\u201d National Museum curator Mai Britt Guleng told\u00a0ARTnews<\/em>. \u201cMental illness was a sore point for Munch because there was a history of mental illness in his close family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Both Munch\u2019s father and sister suffered bouts of depression, and the latter was also diagnosed with schizophrenia. By his own admission, Munch had neither a happy childhood nor a smooth adult life. \u201cDisease, insanity, and death were the angels that attended my cradle, and since then have followed me throughout my life,\u201d he once wrote. Exacerbated by his alcoholism, Munch was finally hospitalized after a nervous breakdown in 1908.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

He explicitly wrestled with depression, loss, and anxiety in his paintings, which often featured phantoms of lost love and family. According to a diary entry, Munch conceived of\u00a0The Scream<\/em>\u00a0while walking out at sunset in Kristiania where, upon viewing the blood red clouds, he sensed an \u201cinfinite scream passing through nature.\u201d Between 1893 and 1910, Munch made four versions of the scene\u2014two paintings and two pastels\u2014as well as a number of prints of the same subject.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on his masterpiece,\u00a0Munch said his goal was \u201cthe study of the soul, that is to say the study of my own self.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source\uff1ahttps:\/\/www.artnews.com\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1904, a Danish critic took a close look at\u00a0Edvard Munch\u2019s\u00a0The Scream\u00a0and noticed something startling: faint handwriting in the far corner of the canvas that reads, \u201cCan only have been painted by a madman.\u201d Since then, the origins of the inscription baffled curators, some of whom assumed it was graffiti by a spectator or a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,13,7,4,3],"tags":[82],"class_list":{"0":"post-255","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artist","8":"category-auction","9":"category-events","10":"category-gallery","11":"category-latest-news","12":"tag-edvard-munch"},"yoast_head":"\nEdvard Munch Authored Mysterious Writing on \u2018The Scream,\u2019 New Analysis Reveals - Investable Art Auctioneer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In 1904, a Danish critic took a close look at Edvard Munch\u2019s The Scream and noticed something startling: faint handwriting in the far corner of the canvas that reads, \u201cCan only have been painted by a madman.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/auction\/edvard-munch-authored-mysterious-writing-on-the-scream-new-analysis-reveals\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Edvard Munch Authored Mysterious Writing on \u2018The Scream,\u2019 New Analysis Reveals - 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